Naruto's Compensation
by DisobedienceWriter
Summary: COMPLETE. Young Naruto is prohibited from being Ninja of the Leaf. Left to his own devices he takes an unusual path to power as a Puppeteer. Smart!Powerful!Wily!Naruto. Lots of conflict with Orochimaru, Sasori and other Akatsuki.
1. Chapter 1

Naruto's Compensation

A/N: They say that when a man loses his sight, his other senses increase to compensate. Naruto won't lose his sight, but rather something just as critical to an active ninja.

Chapter 1

Naruto was hungry. That was nothing unusual. No matter much he ate, he was hungry. But he was careful with his money so he wouldn't run out before the end of the month.

His stomach rumbled as he stepped into a grocery store near where he was playing by himself. He had a small wad of bills and could pay for an apple or a few plums.

He wasn't yet five years old so he was able to stroll right in without anyone noticing him.

The problem came when he stood in line to pay. He didn't remember ever being in this store. Some stores were okay to shop in; some were dangerous.

He held two plums in his small hand and had already figured out the price. He got the right amount of money out and waited his turn to pay.

However, such a simple transaction was not in the cards. The store owner took one look at his next customer and began screaming.

"You. You're not allowed in here. I won't sell you anything; I won't take your blood money, either. Get out. NOW! Get out."

Naruto's eyes went wide, but he was frozen in place. The storekeeper didn't like it at all. He reached for a baseball bat and leapt over the counter.

Naruto dropped the two plums and began running.

He wasn't going to feel that baseball bat…no way. He turned down the alley behind the store. He didn't know this part of town well, but he knew where the alley led. Unfortunately, so did the storekeeper.

Naruto dodged a blow when the man almost materialized in front of Naruto. He ran fast, but the old guy seemed to be even faster. Was he a ninja or something?

"Stop it. I offered you the money for the plums. I was hungry…."

None of his explanations stopped the storekeeper.

Naruto shot into the street, half looking behind himself. What he failed to notice were the carts in the street…the carts that were moving too fast to stop for a small tow-headed child.

A great scream filled the street and brought everything to a halt. A small boy was suddenly pinned between two carts. The wailing got louder until it stopped altogether. An ANBU on the roof leapt down to take charge.

The storekeeper dropped the bat, but quickly disappeared. He had a faint smile on his face. He'd done his patriotic duty to injure or kill the Kyuubi…the demon which had ended his career as a ninja of the Leaf.

The ANBU quickly got a tourniquet around Naruto's left leg and separated the two carts with a good deal of effort. Five minutes after the accident the ANBU was leaping from building to building, zipping his way to the hospital.

Another four hours later, the Hokage arrived to see what in the world had happened to Naruto. It was a grim situation.

"His leg is gone?" the old Hokage asked.

The medic nin nodded. "We had to amputate just above his left knee."

The powerful ninja pursed his lips and then walked over to the ANBU standing guard over Naruto's recuperation room.

"What happened, Ox?"

"The subject went into the grocery store on 19th. Five minutes later he ran out and was pursued by someone with a baseball bat. I missed a part of the chase, but Naruto ran into a road and was sandwiched between two heavy carts…"

"Did you apprehend this person? The baseball bat guy?"

Ox shook his head. "I have stayed here with the subject, Lord Hokage."

The hallway fell silent. "We should have done better by Naruto."

The Hokage had visions of his successor and predecessor. Minato would be outraged. He'd likely flash around town for a few minutes striking down anyone who'd ever looked askance of the boy.

That, of course, was a young man's solution. Sarutobi had an old man's stamina now…and doubted he could win a protracted political battle tied up with the boy, his tenant, and all of the baggage that went with that.

Sarutobi decided on the coward's course, the path of least resistance.

"I will, of course, pay for the prosthesis myself. But…all the boy's dreams. All my hopes for him. I don't know what the world will hold for him now."

Ox said nothing to this.

"I will tell him myself," the Hokage decided. He turned to the medic nin. "Is he able to see visitors?"

"We can't seem to keep to keep him anesthetized. He's in and out of consciousness."

The Hokage walked silently down the hall and tried to figure out what he might say. The boy had not had an easy life thus far…and now it would get even more challenging.

The Hokage knocked on the door and then stepped inside.

"Old man, you came." Naruto sounded happy even missing most of a leg. How Sarutobi wished he could have a corps of ninjas with that attitude.

"Yes, Naruto. I came as soon as I heard. It is terrible."

Naruto nodded. "It hurt a lot. I was really scared."

"I heard you were strong."

"Strong like a ninja, Old Man. I'm gonna be great some day."

This was exactly what Sarutobi didn't want to discuss. "Naruto, I'm so sorry. You'll never be able to be a Ninja of the Leaf."

"What? Why? I want to be a ninja, Old Man."

"You're missing a leg, Naruto. Our rules for training ninja are strict. You couldn't keep up with the other students…nor could you ever be fit for field service. Your body just wouldn't hold up to the strain…."

"But… Old Man, you promised!"

"I know. I'm sorry. I'll…help you find something else you can do, something just as good as being a ninja. I owe you at least that much, Naruto."

Naruto didn't know whether to shout or pout, so he just rolled over in bed. He'd never won an argument with the old man. The Old Man only took Naruto out for ramen if the Old Man suggested it.

He didn't know how, but Naruto was sure he would be a ninja, the greatest ever.

He muttered, "You're wrong," as the Hokage left the room.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Three weeks later, Naruto returned to the hospital to trade in his crutch for a more permanent chakra-powered prosthetic. Two problems: he didn't know what chakra was and he had absolutely no balance with the new limb.

Three different med nins had to help teach Naruto about chakra, about chakra control, and finally about the chakra strings necessary to control his prosthesis. No one enjoyed the experience.

"This is so hard," Naruto opined after another failure.

The med nurse working with him sighed and said, "It's hard for anyone to learn. But I know you can do it. Ninjas in other countries use this technique all the time; not so much here."

Naruto tried again. One step and then he hit the mats in the training room.

"What is this good for?" His tone suggested he couldn't conceive of anything.

"Puppeteers can use chakra strings to control battle puppets. Instead of a ninja fighting with just his body, he can send in two or five puppets, depending on how skilled he is. Some ninja use chakra strings to control weapons or recall them after they've been thrown. There's lots of uses for this. Every ninja should know it, even if Konoha doesn't insist everyone learn it…."

Naruto absorbed every word. "Then I'll get it. The best ninja in the world has to know chakra strings. Believe it!"

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Progress was slow. Naruto had too much chakra and too little control. So he eventually stopped listening to how the med-nins told him to do things. He eventually found a way that worked for him.

Instead of chakra strings, with tiny amounts of chakra, he used metaphoric chakra cables with massive ripples of energy. Every day, he spent time paring down the cables just a bit. This cable idea would become very important to Naruto in the future, even if he didn't realize its import at the age of five.

Indeed, within a few days of his epiphany, he was walking around on his prosthetic nearly as well as he had when he was fully limbed.

The idea of ninjas using this technique fascinated Naruto for weeks, months even.

It was a goal. A worthy goal.

The Hokage told Naruto he couldn't become a ninja, but he could already use a ninja technique. The Old Man was wrong. Naruto could be a ninja. Naruto would be a ninja.

The storekeeper with the baseball bat slipped from Naruto's memory. Eventually the man's actions would resurface and Naruto would remember everything. Until then, no one punished him. The Hokage didn't even suggest it.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

A fully mobile Naruto walked down the streets of Konoha on his way to the Hokage Tower. He wanted to see the old man. He'd spent months, more than six months, getting proficient with his new leg.

It was almost time to sign up for the Academy. Maybe the Hokage would change his mind?

A few minutes later, Naruto pounded on the door and walked right in. The Hokage looked up from a scroll and frowned at his new visitor.

"Naruto, you must wait before I invite you in."

That confused the young boy. "Never have before, Old Man. Why now?"

"Something that's cute in a four year old is rather annoying in a six year old. You need to have better manners, my child."

"Alright, who's going to teach me?" Naruto smiled. He wanted to talk all about teaching.

"People learn manners by watching what other people do, Naruto. All people must be observant of the world around them, especially those who live in ninja villages…."

Naruto began nodding. "Or people who are going to be ninjas. Like me. Alright, I'll pay better attention…."

"No, Naruto, you live in a ninja village, but you won't be able to be a ninja."

"That's what I came to talk about, Old Man. You can see I walk just fine now. It was hard to learn to do, but you can't keep me out of the Academy. I can walk just as well as anyone else."

The Hokage peered down at Naruto's left leg. It was hard to tell that the boy was an amputee. But, the fact remained that he was.

"Naruto, the rules protect you…and the village. Training would be dangerous for you…and if an opponent discovered your weaknesses, it could jeopardize your teammates. It's better if we train you up to do something else, something safer for you."

"But I want to be a ninja, Old Man. You promised I could. I need you to sign my forms so I can register. Please!"

"I can't, my boy. I won't."

"Please!"

The Hokage leapt from his desk and flipped around, belying his advanced age. He landed on the floor in front of a petulant Naruto. With a single, elegant sweep of his foot, he separated Naruto from his his prosthetic leg. The boy toppled over onto the hard floor and looked up with tears in his eyes.

"Why? Why did you do that?"

The Hokage offered a hand to lift the boy up. "If I can do that, your opponents on a battle field could too, Naruto. I won't put you or anyone else at that type of disadvantage. You aren't able to jump; you won't be able to run. I'm sorry. I expected you to become a great ninja, my boy. I'm so very sorry."

The Hokage turned and walked to a wall. He tapped it once and the solid wall rippled. In its place was a wall of scrolls. While Naruto sulked, Sarutobi perused his collection of beginner scrolls. He pulled three out and then handed them to Naruto.

"You can't join the Academy, Naruto. I'm sorry. But you can learn about chakra…."

"I know about chakra, Old Man. I can use chakra strings. How do you think I move around so easily?"

Sarutobi smiled. This side of Naruto made him think of a young Minato, a brilliant spitfire with no manners whatsoever.

Sarutobi went back to his wall of scrolls and plucked a few more down. "Then try these, my boy. And pay attention as you wander around the village. You can learn more by observing carefully than by reading a hundred scrolls. True knowledge is that which you discover for yourself, my boy."

Naruto looked confused but plucked up all the scrolls. He hadn't gotten the answer he wanted, but he had gotten something…and some advice. Pay attention; be observant.

Naruto could do that. Naruto would do that!

And then the Old Man would allow him to go to the Academy.

"Alright then, Old Man. I'll be back later to change your mind."

"You can try, Naruto."

A bubbling little blonde boy ran all the way from the Hokage Tower to his aging apartment building. He couldn't wait to open his scrolls. He'd show them. He could be just as good as anyone else…no, he could be better than anyone else.

He plopped down in the center of his clean apartment and began unrolling the scrolls.

Two were on chakra theory. Boring…but he'd read them eventually.

One was on the great heroes of Konoha. On the Hokages, on the great jounins of times past. It explained their most famous techniques, but not in any detail, just the effects. It was great!

Making wood grow from nothing; or moving around faster than anyone could see; or wielding special chakra blades in battle. Naruto wanted something awesome like that.

Another scroll gave detailed instructions on basic taijutsu. Its companion explained several E- and D-rank jutsus that most Academy students learn.

Those scrolls told Naruto exactly what he wanted to know…gave him the steps for his training.

"The old man won't let me be a ninja, huh. I'll show him. I'll be the greatest ever, even without their stupid academy."

He read the scrolls late into the afternoon before he remembered about his weak leg, the one the Old Man had kicked out from under him.

He examined the thing until evening fell. He knew how to control it with his chakra cables, but it was still a weak stick of wood. He needs something better…something unexpected.

Naruto, after all, fancied himself quite a prankster, a Grand Trickster of Konoha.

He'd get started in the morning.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Another stupid leg…this one out of the hardest wood available in the forest. The strongest there was, but it was too weak.

Naruto could break the stupid thing with just a few hits from a kunai he'd found abandoned in a training field.

"I don't know how to work with metal. What else can I use?"

Naruto frustrated easily, but he did not give up. Not ever. He was going to get a newer, better leg, something that would make the Old Man sign him up for the Academy. It was hard going learning out of scrolls.

The bunshin was tough. He could make the Henge sort of work…some of the time.

It was the kawarimi he really wanted to use. It sounded like the Flying Thunder God technique of the 4th Hokage. Zipping around would be great.

All this learning took time. He wanted to learn in a school, maybe make some friends. He'd never had a friend before.

Naruto threw the hollowed out wooden leg on the floor. He went back to his plans. Instead of just a normal leg, he wanted this to be filled with surprises, something he could use to protect himself. Like a ninja would.

Everything he tried either didn't work or made the new leg way too heavy. Naruto had a fake leg, but he didn't want it thudding around everywhere he went because of its great weight. He needed to be somewhat inconspicuous.

He decided to try again…with a wooden frame, only four kunai, and a few of the other things he'd found on the training grounds.

Maybe it would work this time.

He could use chakra strings to walk…and operate the kunai at the same time. But he couldn't keep the thing together under even a few blows.

How to make it stronger? How to be a great student ninja?

Naruto wished someone would help him, but no one ever came. Not even the Old Man anymore. He hadn't been around in months.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

A few weeks later, after many failed attempts at building a stronger, trickier leg, Naruto gave up. Just hiding kunai inside it wasn't very tricky. He could just buy a kunai holster, after all. He needed something inside his leg that would be useful in a fight…and strengthen the overall leg. Leaving a hollow space just wouldn't work.

He wandered back through the streets toward the nearest part of the forest. He wasn't uncognizant of the dark stares and deep muttering that the villagers addressed toward him.

"No likes me in this stupid place," Naruto muttered.

He wished he could perform the Henge technique well enough to use it today, but he was still trying to make it work. It would be much better to be someone else in this stupid village.

"Stupid villagers."

Naruto turned toward a nearby training ground. He was going to design a trickier leg…he needed to figure out a way to fill the hollow spot in the middle. Did ninja ever use things like bazookas? A small one would be perfect!

The idea put a small smile on his face.

Naruto the Trickster. He'd remind everyone he was here…and that he was smarter than he seemed. It was a bad idea to keep scowling at him. Naruto would remember.

Yes, Naruto would remember the face of everyone who hated him.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

A nearly seven year old Naruto spent most of his mornings wandering around Konoha, just observing like the Old Man told him to do.

He wasn't allowed to go to the Academy, but watching others practice taijutsu was miles better than studying a dusty scroll. Some mornings he sat and watched people for hours.

Today he was trying to observe how people moved. He was still trying to make his first life sized puppet. He'd long since solved his problem with his leg…and its special interior contents. Now he wanted to learn how to do battle. If he couldn't be a ninja on the field himself, he could have a puppet or an army of puppets on the field.

The current problem was the knee of his puppet. He'd tried a dozen different things to make it work. That was why he was watching four different ninja practice sparring.

All this would be easier if Naruto had someone to talk with. But even the Old Man got bored when Naruto began to talk about chakra strings and troublesome knee joints. The Old Man knew several puppeteers from allied villages, but he didn't know how they did what they did.

So Naruto had to puzzle it out by himself.

Eventually the ninjas finished up their morning routines and Naruto got up and left. He took a winding path around and through town. He watched how people moved. He'd eventually need to replicate ordinary movement, along with battle moves, in his puppets. There was just so much to learn.

One of his favorite places to walk by was the Aburame compound. Sometimes he even caught sight of people training to work with tiny insects.

That idea intrigued him.

So many ninjas trained to make big attacks, powerful, colorful. But Naruto was impressed with the beauty and elegance of a thousand small attacks. No one could avoid that many attacks all at once, especially not if they were coordinated in the right way.

Naruto already planned to experiment with very small puppets after he got his life size puppet working.

The more he saw of the world, the more ideas Naruto had. He had dozens of ideas in his head of how to be a ninja, a nontraditional ninja.

He wandered through the streets until it was noon. It used to be he'd have ramen with the Old Man on Wednesday afternoons. Naruto still turned up, but the Old Man hadn't joined him in a few months.

Abandonment by the Old Man hurt even more than the angry stares he got from other people. He'd have to go see the Old Man today.

He slurped through a dozen small bowls of different ramen flavors before he felt temporarily full. He trotted back to his apartment and returned to his reading. His favorite scroll was about Konoha's legendary shinobi.

Of everything he read, he loved the story of the Yondaime Hokage the best. A man who moved in such a way that no one could see him, let alone attack him. That was power; that was what it meant to be a ninja.

Naruto wanted that. But he remembered one of the Old Man's cautions. 'He needed to crawl before he could walk or run.' First a normal puppet, if he could ever get the knee joints to work, then some smaller puppets and then some special tricks no one would ever expect.

Such an easy thing to think, such a hard thing to make work.

"Even though many shinobi have attempted to recreate the Flying Thunder God technique, no one has succeeded. Many of the specially engraved kunai exist and have been studied extensively. For some reason, all the sealing masters who've studied the kunai and attempted to reconstruct the technique have failed when engraving their kunai. There are obviously hidden steps involved in the creation of the tri-pronged kunai…," the scroll in his lap explained.

Yes, that was it. Perfect. An unstoppable technique that no one else could use. Secrets that should be obvious, but weren't. Using something ordinary like a kunai to make the most devastating technique in Fire Country, yes!

He began writing down more notes about what he wanted to do while he connected chakra strings to his fifth attempt at a man-sized puppet. It came out of his bedroom and looked very unstable. It wasn't just the knees. It was everything.

The tall man's bowl-cut hair looked like the end of a mop that it was. It was supposed to mimic one of the ninja Naruto saw training all the time, but it looked like a terrible scarecrow. Step one, make it work. Step two, make it pretty.

It had gotten so easy for Naruto to walk on his artificial leg. Why was it so hard to make the puppet work? He had years of practice with his leg, why didn't his knowledge apply to his puppet?

He practiced and wrote until it was well past dark. It was now a good time to go visit the Old Man.

It only took a few minutes for Naruto to jog through the streets. Even with a false leg, he was agile and limber. Stupid Academy rules. He could keep up with any of those ninja students, any one of them.

He ran up the stairs and knocked on the Hokage's office door. This time he waited to be invited in. A few seconds later, the invite came.

Naruto walked inside and the Hokage looked up.

"Oh, no, I missed our lunchtime appointment, didn't I?"

Naruto just shrugged. "Just came by to see how you're doing, Old Man."

"I'm good, Naruto. How are you doing?"

"I'm grumpy. My puppet isn't working right."

The Hokage nodded. "Oh, what kind?"

"A life-size puppet."

The Hokage smiled. "You've made good progress, then, my child. The last I remember you mentioning was two feet tall."

"That's right. I got it to work finally and then went bigger."

"I'm glad. You've come a long way without a lot of help. You're smart young man, Naruto. I'm glad you're applying yourself so well."

"Yeah. Now, when can I get into the Academy, Old Man?"

The Hokage clutched his forehead and tried not to sigh. "Naruto, we've discussed this before."

"But I can run with my leg. And I've learned how to jump again, Old Man. There's no reason why I can't be a ninja."

"I'm sorry. We aren't having this argument."

An angry Naruto decided to attack from another angle. "Well, then, if I can't go to the Ninja Academy, how about you sign me up for the civilian school?"

There. Civilian school was highly disrespected by ninja. The Old Man would have to cave.

"I'm sorry, Naruto, but I can't arrange that either."

"What? What are you talking about? I'm a young kid. I should be in school, Old Man. Let me into the Academy."

"No."

"Well, why can't I go learn with the civilian kids then?" Naruto had never wondered, until this evening, why he wasn't receiving any schooling at all. The thought had never occurred to him.

The Hokage pinked up a bit in his cheeks. This was quite an embarrassment for him. "It's a long story, but the civilian education authority has a rule stating that any children who have any ninja enhancements must attend a ninja academy."

"What 'enhancements'?"

The Hokage pointed to Naruto's left leg. "You use chakra to control that. It's considered a 'ninja enhancement.'"

"What? I can't go to the civilian school because I have this leg? And I can't go to the Ninja Academy for the same reason?"

The Hokage slowly nodded.

"Old Man, you've got to be crazy. How am I supposed to get some schooling then?"

"I'm sorry, Naruto, but you aren't."

The room fell silent for a moment before the blonde exploded. "What? Why? That's the stupidest rule I've ever heard of!"

"I promise I will explain it when you're older, Naruto."

Naruto was shouting at the top of his lungs now. The Hokage had to wave away the ANBU who came to check up on what was happening. "You're the strongest ninja in the village, Old Man. Are you sure I can't go to the Academy? Just for classes. I won't even try to run or anything! Please!" It was a desperately boring and lonely life Naruto led.

The Hokage lowered his head in shame. "I am the strongest ninja in the village, my child. But, on this, my hands are tied."

"What good are you then?"

The Hokage looked up in anger. But Naruto was already gone.

Also gone was any trust or faith Naruto had for the Old Man. It would be a long time before the Hokage saw Naruto again.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Eight months later, Naruto was ready to do a field test on his newest project.

He'd solved the problems involved in a functioning life-size puppet. The knees were tricky, but Naruto eventually found a design he could replicate with a few aluminum parts he salvaged from the village dump.

Now he was ready. He'd picked his target, the strongest ninja in Hidden Leaf. The Hokage didn't seem to care about Naruto any longer…so Naruto would repay the favor with a mocking smile.

If this technique could work against the strongest, smartest ninja in the village, then it could work against anyone.

Naruto knocked on the door to the Hokage's office and walked right in. He knew what manners were, but he only used them for people he respected. (At present, there were none.) The strongest person in the village was letting him go uneducated. The Old Man could wiggle his little finger and make someone teach Naruto. He chose not to, for some reason.

"Hey there, Old Man."

The Hokage turned around from another 'wall' that revealed scrolls behind it. "Naruto, I didn't expect you today."

"That's alright. I was just seeing if you wanted to get some ramen, Old Man."

The Hokage crooked his head and looked at the stack of paperwork on his desk. "I don't think I can. Not today, my child."

"Well, maybe later." He turned to walk out the door.

"Oh, Naruto, how is your puppeteering coming along?"

"I've made a lot of mistakes, but finally figured out the right way. Maybe I can bring my puppet in and show you."

The Hokage smiled and turned to continue examining his scrolls. He didn't hear Naruto leave. Indeed, he didn't hear anything until a chuunin came into his office to let him know that Ibiki wanted him to observe an interrogation.

When the Hokage turned around to acknowledge the chuunin, the young ninja couldn't keep the shock off his face.

"What's wrong, Kituma?"

"Your face and hands, Lord Hokage? Are you feeling well…?"

The Hokage turned and pulled a small mirror out of his desk. "Red spots? What could cause that?" It only took his sharp mind a few moments to piece everything together. "Naruto! Chuunin Kituma, please find and bring me Uzumaki Naruto. He apparently decided to play a prank on me…and I didn't notice a thing. I want to know how he accomplished this."

"Immediately, Lord Hokage."

A few hours later, after turning the village upside down, a smiling Naruto turned up by himself and knocked on the Hokage's door.

"Come in."

Naruto walked in. The Hokage was scrubbing vigorously at his hands with a wet pad. He still had the red spots everywhere.

Naruto broke out into laughter. "You're still scrubbing. Oh, that's awesome, Old Man. I got you good."

"That you did. I need you to do two things for me, Naruto…."

"Sure, what do you want, Old Man?"

The Hokage wavered between anger and amusement, but he tried to keep it all inside. "I want to know how to get rid of these spots?"

"Can't. They'll go away by themselves. It's from a big fern I found in the forest."

"Naruto, you can't poison people with plants you find in the forest." The Hokage was beginning to sweat about how bad this could have been. There were truly toxic plants in the forest around Konoha.

"It just causes a rash." Naruto was trying hard not to laugh.

"How long?"

"Last time I touched the stuff it took a week to go away…."

A week. A week! "Why did you do this to me?"

"You're the strongest ninja in the village. I was testing my new puppets. They did pretty good, huh?"

The Hokage scratched his head. Naruto caused havoc wherever he went.

"What kind of puppets?"

At this Naruto smiled. He reached into a pocket in his orange suit and pulled out a few small…the Hokage couldn't tell what they were. The Hokage swept them into his hand.

"I'm confused. What are they?"

"They're my fly puppets."

The Hokage looked at them closely. Yes, it seemed that the little thing had wings. Very ingenious. "Fly puppets…. What in the world can you do with them?"

Naruto flashed a huge smile. "Tag you with a mild poison. Pretty good, huh?"

Sarutobi needed to put some necessary fear into the boy. "Naruto, I could have the ANBU arrest you for attempting to kill me…."

Naruto smiled and then laughed. "I'm not a ninja, remember, Old Man? The ANBU can't do anything to a civilian…."

The Hokage knew that was true. That provision had been eked out during the First Hokage's tenure as a means of keeping the Hokage's personal power under control.

"Then I can call the Police."

"They can't investigate crimes committed inside ninja buildings, Old Man. I started reading a lot of scrolls since no one would teach me anything. There are lots of interesting loopholes if you go looking for them."

The boy was telling the truth. Civilians were almost never allowed into ninja buildings, which was the reason why the Police were kept out by statute.

This whole mess was just as glaring a hole as the rules keeping Naruto out of school. Clever boy.

The Hokage wondered how many hours Naruto must have spent researching to find this way of exacting revenge…through a harmless prank. It was a good thing that Naruto didn't have a malicious bone in his body, just an overpowered sense of justice and fairness.

An attack like what Naruto did could have been fatal since the Hokage hadn't been on his guard in Naruto's presence. After all, the powerful ninja reflected bitterly, what could a small boy without any ninja training do to a Kage?

Apparently Sarutobi was wrong to underestimate Naruto. The boy had reverse engineered the puppetry technique from a few dropped hints and basic training in how to make and control chakra strings.

This idea of tiny puppets was something that the Hokage had never heard of. It was like an Aburame being a puppeteer, but done in such a way that the 'insects' made no noise and gave off no detectable chakra signatures.

It was a brilliant idea. From the mouths of babes, then. Maybe he could try to work it into his style…or suggest someone else in his Ninja Corps try it out. Standard puppets were big and clunky, but these little insects were another thing entirely.

"You can leave, Naruto. I'll see if we can have lunch next week." The child was obviously angry and starved for attention. The Hokage needed to spend more time with him…or see if there was someone he could get to befriend the child.

"Sure, sure. I'll have more tests ready to do by then."

"I am not volunteering, Naruto. Head off now and I'll see you later."

Naruto wasn't expecting much, so he wasn't surprised when the Hokage never showed up to have lunch with Naruto.

Indeed, he was rather busy with his additional experiments. Naruto tested the different types of his new puppets and the several varieties of poisons he'd extracted…he tested against civilians, against shinobi, against ANBU. Everyone.

No one noticed his puppets. Everyone took a relaxed stance while staying in Hidden Leaf. It was eye opening, the lack of precaution people took in such a dangerous place. It was a ninja village for Kami's sake.

His strongest conclusion from all the testing was that he needed better poisons. None of the things he had caused anything worse than itching. He wrote it down on his list.

The Hokage's continued indifference festered inside Naruto. It drove him. His new nindo: if won't let me be a shinobi, then I'll just have to be better than them and show them that they're wrong.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

No one watching the gates of the Hidden Leaf Village took a second look when a tall, bulky, but nondescript man walked out of the gates. He dressed like a civilian and carried no obvious weapons on his person.

A chuunin took a picture of the man and made a notation in his log.

That was how eight year old Uzumaki Naruto left the Hidden Leaf Village for the first time in his life. He had created this special hollow puppet that he fit comfortably inside of. It had taken more than eight months to learn to control it, but now no one gave him a second look.

In his place, Naruto had left a rather crude autonomous puppet. It would walk around the apartment a few times a day, but otherwise never left. It just seemed to stare at a variety of scrolls and occasionally pour glasses of water from the tap. The crude puppet could last for a year or longer before losing power completely.

It was likely no one would even note that Naruto hadn't been seen outside of his apartment. People scowled at the boy, but otherwise didn't bother to think about him. Konoha's citizens were brutish and lazy, it seemed.

Naruto was leaving now because he couldn't learn anything in Hidden Leaf. No one taught him anything. The Old Man hadn't given him any new ninja scrolls in years.

No, he had places to visit and new worlds to discover. He planned to start in Suna, to shadow their puppet users, to see what else he could learn about his chosen art. Maybe they knew even better things.

There were so many places Naruto wanted to go. He had a map and definite plans in mind.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Traveling inside a hollow puppet made it quite comfortable to travel through the desert. There was a small fan located in the puppet's head to push air through the hollow body. It took Naruto only a week to traverse the distance.

Getting into the ninja village was stupidly simple. He had arrived on merchant day; civilians were looked upon with a great deal less scrutiny on a day like this.

"Halt," the masked guard said.

The Naruto-puppet stopped and quirked its head.

"Name your business."

"I am a farmer from River Country and I am here to visit your merchants."

"Name?"

"Taro Ryu."

"Fine. The merchants have set up in Century Square. It's down that road there. You are not to venture into any marked ninja areas."

"I understand. Thank you."

Naruto passed into Suna and was anxious to see what he might discover.

He spent the day looking at what the merchants had to offer. He discovered three purveyors of puppetry items. He knew as a civilian he wouldn't be able to buy anything meant for military purposes, but he talked up learning puppetry for entertainment. He got a lot of tips that day. He looked over how these puppeteers constructed their weapons: what sort of joints they had ready made, what sort of attachments they could find without difficulty. He had a good idea of how lethal these standard puppets could become.

He saw nothing about miniature puppets. It made him smile.

Naruto left that night and traveled through the night back to River Country where he slept in a makeshift tent. He could safely return in a week on the next merchant day.

Until then, he had plenty to document, plenty of ideas to dissect and see what might be useful. He had ideas he wanted to attempt with wood in the forest he was sleeping in. He wanted to try developing in wood some of the parts he'd seen in the stores. He wanted to make sure he knew precisely how to duplicate all of what he'd seen.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

The week passed quickly. Naruto had constructed model after model, many failures to get to the correct components. He wanted to know every intricate detail of how a puppet worked, of how it might fail, of how it might be made better.

He placed himself inside his hollow puppet once again, Taro…. He liked that name. The puppet would keep the name of Taro.

In the predawn hours, Taro swiftly carried Naruto back into the desert. By the time the sun was over the horizon, Naruto was back at the gate, re-registering himself with a ninja guard.

This day he was lucky to see a ninja group performing a mock battle for donations in the center of the marketplace. Apparently they were trying to drum up more volunteers to learn the difficult puppet arts. One needed to know taijutsu, ninjutsu, sealing, construction techniques, poisons, basic mechanical engineering to create special weapons…and then needed to achieve mastery of chakra strings. It was much easier to be a standard ninja, so the troupe had to go to extraordinary lengths to popularize what they did.

Naruto watched for as long as the troupe performed. He traded a few valuable plants he'd discovered in River Country at a few shops. Some paid in Suna money; some paid in store credits. Now, Naruto had a bit of coin and canned foods and a bag of rice to supplement what he was eating from River Country.

His life passed this way for the next few months. One day a week in Suna; six days back in the forests of River experimenting and documenting what the folks in Suna knew. He had a whole scroll with hints he'd heard: the legendary Akasuna no Sasori and his perversions of the puppetry art, his human puppets; coordinated attack armies controlled by a single skilled puppeteer; sealing techniques to store puppets in scrolls or other objects.

The more Naruto learned, the more he realized he didn't know.

His next trip in, Naruto asked some oblique questions about Sasori. What he got in response was the equivalent of ghost stories told over a campfire. Horror stories: a powerful ninja turning people into puppets, killing and gutting a Kazekage, the single strongest ninja in Suna's history, a lethal user of magnetic sand…dead at the hands of a puppeteer.

Naruto had more money now from his trading. He bought a few more supplies and a few items for hobby puppets. He promised one vendor that he'd bring his puppet in next week and give a little performance.

That would be quite the thing. Naruto hiding inside Taro, giving the illusion that a puppet was controlling another puppet…. Actually, thinking about it, it was quite an idea. Naruto scribbled it down.

He was getting better every day. He understood now what he just cobbled together before. He taught himself the practical lessons first through trial and error; now he had the theory to go along with it. Things made sense now, even if he was learning in a backwards order.

He had drained his sources in Suna. That meant it was time to move on.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

The trip up to Grass Country was far nicer than heading into the desert. Everything was green and beautiful. Naruto brought along a large sack of roots and herbs gathered from River Country. He had a small amount of Suna money left, but he'd lose most of it if he bothered to exchange it.

It was better to start over, make a new identity. He didn't plan to stay here long.

The first day he slipped easily into Grass Country's main village. He found a number of shops, sold his collection of trimmings and roots from River Country, asked a hundred questions about the various poisonous plants found throughout this land, and bought a few scrolls identifying these plants with images.

Naruto, well protected inside his Taro puppet, spent the next two weeks roaming the land searching out every type of poisonous plant and animal. He distilled leaves and roots down. He milked snakes and toads. Everything went into vials and got loaded into the storage chamber carved into Taro's legs.

He wandered back into the village and produced some of the venoms and toxins he'd distilled. He watched as suspicious store owners tested the toxins…and came away pleased with the results.

He earned money and even more information about poison sources.

He had enough money to snoop around Grass Country's many bookstores. He didn't have a lot of storage room left to carry such things…but when he discovered a volume on sealing techniques, he snatched it up.

Naruto spent another month testing out new poisons. These ones he kept…in a sealing scroll he was now able to produce.

He was learning. He was advancing. It was time to move on. Should he go to Earth Country or Lightning? It was a tough choice.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

More than one year after slipping out of Hidden Leaf, a nine year old Naruto returned.

A chuunin snapped a picture of an obvious non-shinobi and made a notation in the log.

Naruto made his way quickly back to his apartment. He had been traveling inside Taro off and on for most of a year. Naruto had also grown taller and become more muscled after eating a healthier diet than just ramen. He was barely comfortable inside Taro. Plus the storage areas in the puppet's legs and arms were completely full of storage scrolls

It was not good to be back, but he needed some time to put his next set of plans into effect.

He entered his apartment building and noticed that the place had only gotten dingier. He unlocked his door and walked inside. There was no mail inside. The Naruto puppet was on the floor 'reading,' for the thousandth time, a basic scroll on chakra control.

Naruto crawled out of the Taro puppet and spent a few minutes stretching his cramped muscles.

He then walked over to the Naruto puppet and turned it off. He'd be able to recycle this puppet. Or maybe it wasn't worth his time.

He'd been working on different techniques than just simple wooden puppets.

Naruto pulled out his sealing scroll and swiped it with his blood. Box after box appeared. Green, small boxes were his poison holders. The tan boxes held everything else: puppet parts acquired in his brief return to Suna (immediately before coming back to the Leaf), scrolls on a wide variety of topics, samples of exploding notes from four different countries, and a variety of things Naruto wanted to further explore.

Standard, life size puppets weren't very interesting. They were good worker bees, but awfully single dimension. Naruto had moved on and refined his techniques for very small puppets. He'd invented a technique for controlling mass numbers of them at the same time.

But his new project was something completely insane. He knew what he wanted, but he didn't even know if it could be done. He had seen Tsuchi bunshin and Mizu bunshin…Naruto wanted to create a bunshin from wood or some other base material, with full chakra networks, and controllable through chakra strings.

He didn't even know where to start building the technique.

But he wouldn't give up.

He had the beginnings of his ninja style. Deception, traps; puppets and poisons; seals enhancing everything.

He probably would never have chosen this style had he still had his left leg, had he gone through the standard ninja training. But it felt natural to him now.

He needed time to get ready. He knew his destiny did not lie within the Hidden Leaf Village. It felt unnatural coming back here, but he had a lot to prepare before his final departure.

He pulled a cup of instant ramen from his kitchen cabinet and began to warm up some water. He hadn't any ramen since stopping in a village in Earth Country. He was looking forward to a familiar taste.

His own apartment, his own bed. Cleaner than the rooms in Kumo; larger than the dumps near Iwa; less dirty than camping out in a forest. All the main creature comforts, but…something was missing.

Somehow his apartment didn't feel like home so much any more.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Naruto wasn't much interested in the cereal on his spoon. It had no flavor. There were butterflies in his stomach, too.

Naruto realized, with a touch of surprise, that this was the first year he'd be allowed to attempt to qualify as a genin…had he gone to the Konoha Ninja Academy.

Instead he was self taught, learning more from experiments than from generally accepted wisdom. In a way, it hurt. But his nontraditional education also paid unexpected benefits.

His personal taijutsu was acceptable ignoring his disability (and remarkable considering his missing leg)…but he was on a whole other level when battling with a puppet. His ninjutsu was limited, little beyond three types of bunshin, the henge, kawarimi, and a few others he'd picked up by accident in his travels. The kawarimi was his favorite. It reminded Naruto of the best technique he'd ever read of, the Flying Thunder God.

Naruto knew he wouldn't be able to do what the Fourth Hokage had done, his version of being everywhere at once. But Naruto could design something else. It was the item at the very bottom of his rather long list.

Naruto stood up from his breakfast table, leaving the bowl behind. Cleaning his apartment didn't matter any more.

He was ready, everything was packed, the explosive was set to go off in three hours. Naruto headed out of his apartment for the final time. He was now ten years old and it was time to go.

He had one bowl of ramen at Ichiraku's. Damn fine ramen they served, but there were specialties in each of the other villages he'd been to that were just as good. He left a substantial tip as it was unclear whether Naruto would ever return to Konoha in any guise (certainly never with his true face).

"It was delicious, thank you."

"You come by more often, youngster. I like to try out the new flavors with you," the chef hollered back.

"I'll try."

The walk to the Hokage Tower took no time at all. Naruto strolled right in. No one seemed to notice him. Quick enough, he knocked on the Hokage's door and strolled right in.

"Old Man, I just had ramen and remembered that I hadn't stopped by in a long time."

The Hokage looked up from a book…err, a pile of paperwork. That was a fast disappearance. Must be something embarrassing…or perverted.

"Hello, Naruto. How was the ramen?"

Naruto smiled. "Hot and wonderful. We haven't had lunch in a long time, Old Man."

"I know, my child. I've just been so busy."

Naruto walked around the room staring at the walls. "That's alright. So, are you going to let me go to the Ninja Academy this year?"

"No, Naruto. I'm sorry."

Naruto tried to keep his voice as whiny as possible. "But I can do all the techniques. I taught myself from the scrolls you gave me a few years ago."

The Hokage couldn't keep the frustration out of his voice. "No, it's my final decision, Naruto. You may not be trained as a Ninja of the Leaf and I will not permit you to become a Genin of the Leaf, even if you could pass the test."

"That's it, then?"

The Hokage nodded. "I'm sorry, my child. I had wished a different life for you."

"I am sorry, too, Old Man. I wished we never got to this point." At that, Sarutobi felt a small pain in his neck. Another one of Naruto's puppets…but he couldn't move his head, nor his hands, this wasn't a prank. He couldn't even call out for help.

Would he die at the hands of an untrained boy, he, the God of Shinobi? A boy who had taken up puppetry without a mentor and destroyed a Hokage…. It just wasn't possible.

"It's just a paralysis toxin, Old Man," Naruto explained. "You won't be going anywhere for hours. I'll just pull out your dirty book and prop it up in your hands, just like this. You already have a perverted scowl on your face, so no one will interrupt."

Naruto laughed. "No, they won't interrupt you, Lord Hokage. They all have manners, after all," the boy said with a bitter voice.

"You should have done better, Old Man. You should have trained me to be a ninja. Instead, I had to train myself. Now, it's time for me to go, but I'm taking every scroll you have in here."

It took just a few minutes to pull all the scrolls out of their nooks using hundreds of chakra strings. Naruto piled them up and did one more search of the office. He found a couple more nooks. Then he searched the Old Man's desk. A few more items of interest, secret files, stuff with sophisticated seals that would take a long time to break.

He looked at the frozen Old Man and couldn't bring himself to say anything more. Naruto took a blank scroll and began scrawling. "You are wrong. I will be the greatest ninja ever born."

When the Old Man regained control of his muscles, he would see those words first thing.

Naruto didn't know what he would do if he ever saw the Old Man again. He hoped not to have to make the choice. He was just so angry right now.

He unsealed another scroll and the fifth version of his Taro puppet poofed into existence. Naruto stowed the sealing scroll with the Hokage's collection into his puppet, then he crawled inside.

Minutes later, a chuunin at the gate took the man's picture and made a note in his log.

He was halfway to River Country when his former apartment ignited in massive flames.

He was safely nestled in the forest in River Country when a chuunin finally managed to revive the Hokage.

He was well into a few new experiments by the time the Council of the Hidden Leaf realized they couldn't declare a non-ninja as a missing ninja. Another loophole, this one to Naruto's benefit.

Naruto was deeply conflicted about what he'd done. He hated the Hokage, but he missed having lunch with the Old Man. He hated the villagers who glared at him, but he knew he'd miss his apartment and the comfortable ramen stand he visited often. He'd never had a friend in Konoha, but there was no guarantee he'd ever find a friend somewhere else.

There was no time for regret.

The decision was made. He had to live with it.

His only consolation was that Konoha had abandoned him long before he'd abandoned her.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Naruto ate a delicious meal of fish and bitter greens as the night took over the sky. He'd been living in River Country for six months now…the life agreed with him.

He'd read a good portion of the scrolls he'd taken from the Hokage, but he had at least surveyed all of them. The ones of sealing techniques got the highest priority. The ones with big, fancy ninjutsu were at the bottom of the pile.

He'd definitely improved his skills. Several of the scrolls taught him to detect and dispel genjutsu, although he had little interest in crafting them. He'd learned a whole bunch of techniques, like poisoned notes and Shadow Clones (an excellent learning aid), that he could implement with his puppets. He'd even found technical scrolls on chakra strings, how to really get the most out of them. Even Naruto learned some valuable tips reading through them.

But, the biggest finds reassured Naruto he had made the right choice to leave Konoha, the bunch of lying bastards.

Naruto now knew who his parents were; he knew about the Council liquidating his dad's estate and putting the money in the general revenue; he knew about his demonic tenant; he knew that the Hokage had locked his father's personal technique journals away in his library and obviously never intended to give them to a child who hadn't even been trained as a ninja; he knew every dirty or evil act commissioned by Hidden Leaf since the Old Man had been in charge.

The wars Hidden Leaf started between its enemies; the potential civil wars it had ruthlessly disrupted; all the blood and bodies Hidden Leaf extracted from friends and foes.

Had he learned all this while he was still in Konoha, Naruto had no idea what he would have done. His family was gone; his life was ruined; he was relegated off to being little more than a street urchin, without education or the possibility of finding employment there; his passion to become a ninja ended because of an accident and a stupid law that the Hokage could change in a second.

Naruto cleaned up his plate and dishes in a small stream near to his camp. He dispelled the Shadow Clones he had been using to hold the chakra cables to the defensive puppets. They were running low on chakra; he created new ones to hold the chakra cables, each with between a thousand and three thousand individual chakra string, to power the defenses. Each string connected to a defensive perimeter or to a tiny puppet or to some other trick or trap Naruto had hidden in the forest.

He fully expected that Konoha was hunting for him. He fully expected to have to defend himself at some point.

But, not tonight.

He put all of his things away and went into the small cave he'd built from a medium-level earth technique on one of the Old Man's scrolls.

He created another Shadow Clone and had it connect up the last of the defenses. His nastiest micropuppets, these ones engraved with Exploding Seals or Fire Seals or daubed in some of his nastiest poisons, were this last line of protection.

Naruto fell asleep, happy with such a tasty dinner. His mind raced even as he was unconscious, trying to piece together how exactly he was going to create his ultimate technique, the Puppet Clone.

In his mind, the thing was able to use chakra like a Shadow Clone (but without dispelling from a single hit) and to be constituted by a chakra string enscribing a set of seal on any kind of material, whether stone, metal or glass. That central seal was what kept the Puppet Clone active, regulated the chakra pumping into it through the chakra string, and described its abilities. That central seal, and the metal or glass or stone it was inscribed upon, was what had to be destroyed for the Puppet Clone to dissipate. In theory. In his dreamland.

Naruto hadn't yet figured out the elements of the seal, let alone how to inscribe a seal using only a chakra string.

With this technique complete, Naruto would command a power greater than even what his father had. The Flying Thunder God allowed one person to flit from target to target to target faster than anyone could see. The Puppet Clone's ultimate purpose was to instantly raise an unexpected army and to slaughter all opponents without endangering Naruto. To dissipate before anyone had ever known they were there…or, in extremis, to remain on the field as long as needed. Again, in theory.

The idea was that Naruto could be miles away from the conflict, but still control the chakra cables.

His mind was filled with formulas and notes even while he dreamed. Success in this venture was years, if not decades, away.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

It was a simple tug. That was what awakened Naruto. A tug from the Shadow Clone guarding the entrance of his cave.

Someone or something was here.

He leapt from his pallet on the ground and quickly sealed himself inside his Taro puppet.

A shadow clone was dispelled on the perimeter. One of three dozen defenders…puppet controllers. In its final moments, the Shadow Clone realized what was happening. A large force, at least a dozen ninja, approached from the Suna side of the forest. Why were they here?

Naruto wove and cast out a more chakra cable from the palm of each hand. He used half the chakra strings in one cable to wrap around the body of one of the ninja approaching Naruto's camp. With just a wiggle of his little finger, the chakra strings broke the man's neck.

Another dispelled Shadow Clone told Naruto that the entire force had seen the attack with chakra strings…they wouldn't allow themselves to be captured that way again.

A hundred micropuppets had just launched when that Clone was destroyed. Good, Naruto thought, the poisons and explosions should be softening up any attackers.

The main problem with his defenses is that they were waited toward the Konoha side of the forest. Naruto now realized it was stupid to have done that…so many wasted opportunities. He used his chakra cables to try to pull the out-of-position puppets into the battle area.

He then dropped his half consumed chakra cables and formed new ones. With both cables, he lifted giant boulders from the river bed, as many as he could find that weighed more than thirty kilos, and dropped them on the ninja. It provided a distraction, hopefully.

Another Shadow Clone, no two dispelled. The enemy was down another three fighters. The micropuppets were devastating. Naruto took a moment to comprehend what was happening. There were at least three highly skilled ninja with the team.

The others were fodder.

The Shadow Clone that controlled the inner circle defenses – the one with access to the most lethal poisoned micropuppets – dispelled. The invading force was down to two…who were both wise to the puppets somehow. One was poisoned, but it would take time to drop him.

Naruto formed up a few thick chakra strings. He had a few experimental puppets in the cave. If this was his last stand, he wasn't going to hold anything in reserve.

A man burst into the cavern. Three puppets, including the incomplete sixth version of Taro, confronted him. That Suna ninja was powerful, wielding a pair of swords. Another man sped into the cavern. Naruto inside of Taro was on him immediately. This man used a sword composed of air-affinity chakra. It was a devastating technique.

Taro was taking major damage. The other Suna ninja had succumbed to his three attackers. In a moment of distraction, the wind user made a slash across Taro's midsection. It was powerful enough to shred the wood. A powerful kick to Taro's thigh had such force that it threw Naruto from the damaged puppet.

Thudding against the wall, Naruto lost his connection with the other puppets in the cave.

The Suna ninja looked confused for a moment and then blinked. "A kid? A fucking kid!"

The ninja looked around the cave for a second. "I led a team of twelve. I'm the only one standing. No one's that good at traps. Five of Suna's jounin are dead. Tell me who you are and how you did this."

Naruto was still clearing confusion from his mind. As much as he'd trained, he had never before been in a battle. He'd never killed anyone until today. He didn't know what was happening.

The Suna jounin didn't like the silence. He crossed to Naruto and kicked the boy. "Keep your hands visible. You start making a handseal and I'll behead you. Start talking now."

"I am no one."

The jounin snorted. "What village are you from? Who the hell taught you to do all this?"

"I once lived in the Leaf village…."

"Leaf? That bunch of wimps! They don't know the first thing about puppets or trap setting. You need to tell me a better lie. Where are all the other ninja in this camp?"

"I'm the only one here, I swear."

"In the past week we've registered five dozen different unique ninja techniques coming from here. Your people were stupid not to detect our border patrols. Where are the other ninja?"

Naruto just shook his head. He had used all the techniques himself, trying out quite a few of the ninjutsu scrolls in the Hokage's pilfered collection.

"Fine. I can just take your corpse back to Suna. Maybe the technicians can make your body give up your secrets. Anything they do will be more forthcoming…."

The Suna jounin brought out his wind blade, but he didn't get a chance to use it.

Naruto had taken the man's brief interrogation to work out a plan. He had one trick…up his leg. He'd tested the thing before, but never actually used it while he was attached to his false leg.

He kicked out his left leg. With a chakra string he always kept active, even with his jarring collision against the cave wall seconds earlier, Naruto detonated a powerful rocket right in the Suna jounin's face. It wasn't quite a bazooka, as he had dreamed of as a child, but it caused quite a bit of damage. His special prosthetic leg was ruined, of course, but Naruto was alive.

He sat up and just tried to calm his breathing. He had nearly died. Died! From an enemy he didn't even know he had.

What to do? What….

He needed to collect what remained of his puppets. He needed to search the Suna corpses. He needed to destroy this site and get out of River Country. He gave himself two hours. It wasn't much time.

Fifty Shadow Clones popped into existence. They ran out of the cave to salvage what they could. He'd spent years crafting all types of his micro-puppets. He wanted to salvage what he could.

Naruto crawled over to his mostly destroyed workbench and found a workable prosthesis to wear. He turned back and began searching the two dead men inside his cave.

One was called Baki, no family name. The other was called Kyu, also no family name. Perhaps it was a security thing.

The two had a few scrolls on them, all but one were encrypted.

He got more scrolls from the Shadow Clones who'd searched the other bodies. It wasn't much of a haul considering he'd lost nearly two thirds of his micropuppets. They'd helped to take down some of the best shinobi in Suna, but it was a hard loss. More than a year's work.

Naruto left explosive notes, stacks of them, in all the strategic areas of his former camp. He was gone from the scene of his near-death within fifty minutes.

As Naruto slipped back into Fire Country on his way northeast, the notes were triggered by a Shadow Clone. The camp would burn for hours thanks to the dry kindling Naruto had stacked around the formerly serene location.

Naruto mourned that camp. It was a beautiful place.

He headed through a long, zigzagging path toward Grass Country. He'd resume his research there. He was using an unfinished Taro puppet and a prosthetic leg he'd crafted and rejected a month earlier. He needed to get into a new base camp quickly. He felt awfully vulnerable out in the world right now.

His fingers twitched and directed the puppet almost without conscious thought. His mind was racing, though.

He'd had his ass handed to him. He'd thought he was invulnerable. Only a juvenile appreciation of bazookas had saved Naruto from an early death.

He'd never be the strongest ninja if he could be taken down so easily by a Suna jounin surrounded by a kilometer's worth of traps in every direction.

Naruto needed to get stronger. Fast.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Six months after his near disastrous fight in River Country, Naruto finally felt comfortable with his situation in Grass Country. He'd gotten stronger; he'd cracked the encryptions on the Suna scrolls (most of it was operational instructions, not training materials); he had several bolt holes throughout Grass Country.

He was ready for the next phase of his development as a ninja.

He had knowledge. Now he needed experience.

A tall man – nearing seven feet in high – with well tanned skin and dark black hair stalked into the main village of Grass Country. He carried two kunai holsters and an elegant sword on his back.

Two chuunin and a jounin appeared in front of him. Taro stopped walking.

"What's your business here?"

Taro looked down at the smaller men. "I have come to apply to the Grass ninja forces."

The jounin's eyebrows reached almost to his hairline. "Alright, step in here. We need to perform an initial security check before we can escort you to the recruitment office."

Taro moved quickly to the guard post. The jounin led the questioning. The two chuunin appeared to be flipping through books, likely Bingo Books.

"Name?" the jounin asked.

"I am called Taro of the River."

"Previous ninja village affiliation?"

Taro shook his head. "I have never served in a ninja force."

"How did you receive ninja training then?"

"A retired ninja in my village taught me."

"And his name?"

"He called himelf Kembuta, but I doubt it was his true name."

The jounin nodded. Ninja were often stingy with information. "What are your specialties?"

"I am a generalist. But I excel with weapons and trap setting."

The jounin was scratching away on a form. "Have you ever committed any crimes?"

"No."

The jounin looked skeptical of that. No one could rise through the ranks without doing some illegal things from time to time, at least not in Grass Country.

"Do you have any aliases?"

"None yet."

The jounin smiled at that. Famous ninja tended to pick up admiring nicknames from allies and derisive titles from opponents.

"You have no relationship with Grass ninja, correct?"

"True."

"Why join our ninja force?"

"You have a good reputation. Suna is shrinking; Konoha is full of eccentric prima donnas; Iwa is way too serious and hardcore even for me; Kumo's a bunch of assholes; and I haven't heard a single good thing about Kiri."

The jounin nodded as he scribbled. He looked up at the chuunin and apparently got a positive answer.

"Come with me, Taro of the River. I know just the person you should speak with."

Four hours later, after an even more extensive interview, Taro had to perform a placement demonstration.

He went up hand-to-hand against a taijutsu master. He held his own for five minutes. Then he had a weapons demonstration against the leading kenjutsu master of Grass. Katana against katana. The exhibition lasted ten minutes before Taro was disarmed; a very successful showing.

Finally, he had a ninjutsu examination. He had to go up against the same jounin who interviewed him. It quickly became apparent that whoever Taro's teacher had been – all aliases aside – had been supremely talented. Taro had a wind affinity, but also demonstrated familiarity with Earth and Fire techniques.

The judging jounins awarded Taro the rank of chuunin, although two of the five were willing to make him a jounin.

"Welcome to the Ninja Force, Taro. Report to Central Office tomorrow for your first assignment. Do you have housing arranged already?"

"No, could you recommend a place?"

"Let me walk you over to the realtor many ninja use here."

"I appreciate it…."

"You may call me Tenuya."

"Much appreciated, Tenuya."

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Naruto, in one of his boltholes miles from the Grass village, smiled after Taro arrived at his new apartment.

His new techniques were working. Perfectly. He was able to control Taro Mark 7 from miles away, even the voice. Taro's eyes transmitted back perfect 360 degree images.

Even better, Naruto had perfected the technique for giving a puppet a functioning chakra system. A medic nin's surface scans wouldn't show anything abnormal about Taro at all. It was a perfect puppet…in that it didn't look like a puppet.

This puppet also had the first working heartstone Naruto had managed to create. The small piece of chakra steel contained dozens of seals that directed and controlled Taro's chakra usage. It also had a few seals designed to self-repair the puppet. A severed arm would knit back onto the torso within seconds. Only the complete destruction of the heartstone could render the puppet worthless.

It was a minor miracle of engineering.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Taro settled into his first role easily. He was assigned to a three man team that patrolled the outer perimeter of Grass Country for eight hours a day, six days a week. It was a grunt task designed to break new chuunin of their illusions about ninja service.

Naruto, of course, was busy doing his research while he only devoted a quarter of his attention to the Taro puppet. Naruto was working on the next sets of seals needed to improve on his 'heartstone' puppets, a necessary step to developing rapid-deployment Puppet Clones.

Right now it took Naruto more than a month to engrave all the seals necessary to activate a 'heartstone' puppet, one capable of wielding chakra and superficially identical to a real human. If he could finish his Puppet Clone technique, he could raise up an army of 'heartstone' puppets in seconds.

He had time now. He could get the experience he needed in battle. Eventually he might even test his own personal prowess, sans puppets, in battle. But he still looked more than a bit young for that.

For now he relegated the control of Taro to a single finger on his right hand. The other nine fingers were busy developing, improving.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Taro of the River became famous as a denizen of the Ninja Archives in Grass Country. Over the course of his first year as a chuunin, when he wasn't performing border duty and catching smugglers or bandits, he was reading scrolls.

He read on nearly every topic. So long as it applied to the ninja arts, Taro read it. Biographies of enemy jounin; detailed plans of past Grass Country military incursions; the research and development budgets for the last fifty years; histories of the noble families of Grass Country and their famed techniques.

And when he wasn't reading scrolls, he was in the training fields. It seemed that he never slept. He had stamina that no one had ever seen before. He could perform taijutsu forms for hours before he pulled out his sword and went for even longer. There were times when he disappeared into the tall bamboo and emerged later to find some jounin who needed trap detection practice. Only two jounin in a year managed to make it through a trap field set by Taro. And they were lucky he hadn't bothered to poison any of the apparatus.

In his rare quiet moments, he typically left the villages to take a run in one of the many grassy fields nearby. He seemed to never want to stop moving.

Since no one ever saw him eat in public, the rumor started that Taro was deathly afraid of being poisoned…and Kusa was well known for its lethal, near undetectable poisons. One day, Taro dispelled that rumor by going into a poison vendor and dipping a kunai in a lethal cocktail. He cut his own skin…and did not promptly fall over dead.

Taro of the River was a complete enigma. He, unlike every other chuunin of the village, did not complain about border patrol duty. He was a perfect ninja, almost totally without personality or dangerous eccentricities.

His reputation soared even higher one unfortunate afternoon on patrol. He and his two chuunin colleagues ran into a small group of ninja, one of whom was a bone wielder.

The pale ninja remained behind while the other three ninjas bounded away, not even bothering to look back at their colleague.

Within thirty seconds, the bone wielder killed Taro's two chuunin colleagues.

Taro dodged and weaved and tried to assess exactly what this ninja could do. He tried a few exploratory attacks. A kunai did nothing. His sword was destroyed by a bone effusion from the ninja. His use of a Blade of Wind caused some damage to the bone wielder, but a kind of bone armor quickly grew over the pale ninja's entire body.

Taijutsu was contraindicated with such an opponent. Taro's primary weapons did nothing. Taro, through the chakra strings controlled by Naruto, released tiny poisoned lice. They tangled into the hair of the pale ninja and crawled toward his scalp. Twenty seconds later, the bone wielder fell over dead, a victim of one of Kusa's numerous poisons.

No ninja's ultimate defense was without holes. Even bone armor couldn't cover every part of the scalp.

Taro dispatched a few dozens tiny puppets from compartments hidden in his body, under his clothes. He was surveying the area for those other three ninja, but they already seemed to be outside Grass Country. He could only use puppets as Taro…because Taro didn't have access to a technique like Shadow Clones. Taro had to stay in character.

He knelt down and checked on his colleagues. With the horrible gashes through their bodies, it was unlikely they were still alive…but he had to verify.

Taro had three dead bodies, two colleagues and the strongest enemy he'd yet fought. He pulled out a blank scroll and a brush. Within two minutes, he had a freshly inked sealing scroll. The bodies disappeared into it and Taro scooped it up and bounded back to the village. He was reporting in three hours early, but this was a catastrophic occurrence.

A group of three jounin debriefed Taro. They were very concerned about what had happened. Allied ninja crossing Grass stopped and presented papers; they certainly didn't leave an assassin behind.

"What kind of hita-ite did he wear?"

"I don't think he wore one," Taro said.

"His colleagues?"

"I saw their backs. They did not stop even when their pale friend stayed behind."

"Do you think he was the strongest or the weakest of them?"

Taro shrugged. "No idea. I can't imagine much stronger than him, though."

One of the jounin, disguised by a mask, asked, "How did you manage to kill him?"

Here Taro was prepared to answer. He did not care to explain the micropuppets he used; or his extensive knowledge and use of poisons. A colleague today could easily be an enemy tomorrow in the world of ninja.

"I did not," Taro said. "I battled him to a standstill, my weapons could not touch him, his bone blades could not hit me. Then he flopped over, dead. He had a racking cough. It is possible he was left behind because he was so sick."

"We will have the medical corps be careful examining his body, then."

The after action report continued for hours. Taro had to recreate the battle, pose by pose, as best he could. The jounin wanted to know everything about an opponent as lethal as this bone wielder, identified as a Kaguya clan trait by one of the jounin.

In the coming days, Taro's assignment changed from border duty to service in the armory. It was a seen as a step up in the ruling cabal's confidence in Taro's loyalty to Grass Country.

Finally, after almost two years of service to Grass, Taro was invited to take the jounin exam. Everyone in the know considered it a formality. By the end of that day, Taro was the newest jounin of Grass…and probably the strongest of any of them, although no one admitted that out loud.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Naruto had been busy. He'd finished extending the reach of his puppets. He had chakra cable relays…and was now able to wander for hundreds of miles away from Taro, rather than needing to be within five miles.

He now had boltholes established within an even dozen countries.

He had secondary puppets establishing identities in Earth, Tea, Lightning, Rain, and Wave Countries. He was thinking about setting up something in Fire Country, maybe near one of the gambling resorts.

His new puppets were farmers or beggars or even the librarian of a civilian school. One managed a small warehouse for drying tea leaves. He could pick up the strings and manage these puppets directly, but for sake of his sanity, he left the day to day work to a series of Shadow Clones. As Naruto perfected his control over the thousands of chakra strings in a chakra cable, his Shadow Clones improved their control.

He had discovered the process for inscribing seals on stone or wood. It was still a slow process. Even if he used eight or ten chakra strings, it took a few minutes to create a heartstone.

Not fast enough, not by a longshot. He had a lot of work to do.

He trained constantly, both in his physical body and in his manipulation of puppets. But he still lacked much of the experience he knew he needed.

He needed harder enemies.

He hadn't forgotten his vow back in Hidden Leaf. He would be stronger than anyone else. A little crippled boy would be stronger than everyone.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Taro looked impassive when he received his newest assignment, a genin team. He got what the other jounin referred to as 'the dregs of this academy class.'

He met with his three nervous students the day after the assignments were made. The young students, who were about Naruto's own age, were excited and totally clueless.

Naruto, through his puppet Taro, decided that he'd had an unconventional education…a successful unconventional education. He'd had to work hard for his gains. His students deserved everything he could help them achieve.

Before the kunoichi could open her mouth, Taro waved her silent. "Let me be clear. I am here to make you as good as I possibly can. What I will teach you will likely conflict with what you learned at your Academy. I will teach you to find your individual style. I will not allow you to be seduced by wild, vibrant techniques. You need to be effective before you hang a flashing sign around your neck saying, 'Please kill me.' The boy with the silver hair will be referred to as Number 1, the girl over there is Number 2, the half asleep child who is about to need to run laps is Number 3, and I will be called Number 4. I am your teacher; I am not your friend."

The students looked scared and dismayed. Taro was pleased with the reaction. The other jounin had been willing to write off these students because of their lackluster academy performance. Taro…Naruto…would hone them into fine daggers.

"I will now assess your skills. Number 1, you will head into that stand of bamboo and hide yourself. Numbers 2 and 3 will wait five minutes and then go in to find you. When you locate Number 1, you will use taijutsu only to immobilize Number 1 and drag him back into this clearing."

Number 1, the silver haired boy, looked ready to cry.

"Go. Your time is ticking down. Go and hide. I'll call this off if you can hold out an hour. How's that?"

The boy shook his head as though his sensei was insane, but he ran off into the bamboo.

Taro just began practicing taijutsu while his other two students conferred between themselves.

Number 3 asked, "How is he assessing us if he's just doing katas?"

Taro smiled mid-exercise. "I have excellent hearing and more tricks up my sleeve than you've ever considered. By the way, you and Number 2 should go and retrieve your colleague."

Number 2 shouted out, "It hasn't been five minutes."

"I know. Ninja rarely follow any rules. I will however suspend the exercise after one hour if you're unsuccessful…."

He saw some lights go off in his students' minds. "Miserable students, of course, have to serve as my punching dummies. Keep that in mind."

Number 2 and 3 ran into the forest. They just wanted to get away from their sensei.

Taro laughed. This was going to be fun.


	8. Chapter 8

A/N: Several reviewers have asked about Naruto's age. Naruto is now 14 (and his students are either 13 or 14). Taro has been the team's sensei for more than two years. Yes, they will be entering those Chuunin Selection Exams. I will leave what happened to Gato to your imaginations, although hints will be coming quite a few chapters in the future.

The Kimmimaro 'cameo' last chapter didn't dispose of the 'capture Sasuke' arc. Kimmimari served Orochimaru and the young Hidden Sound long before the Chuunin Selection Exams. In this AU, he is already dead, killed by Taro.

On superpowering various ninja techniques, I hope Naruto's ideas and techniques aren't ridiculously strong, but even if they are, he knows the weaknesses of his techniques. For example, Naruto will have a technique for raising an army of Puppet Clones out of nothing. The technique, if used under perfect conditions, will be as unstoppable as the Yondaime Hokage's Flying Thunder God. But it has problems and drawbacks, namely needing time to prepare and a high level of surprise to be effective. One could have destroyed or mutilated the tri-pronged kunai necessary for the 4th's technique…or, as you will see, one could move out of the range of the preparations Naruto needs to make for his Puppet Clones. Both techniques depend upon surprise. If the surprise is gone, then the technique isn't so unstoppable.

How to construct micropuppets? Yes, they are very, very small. And Naruto won't get anything smaller than lice. In the beginning, Naruto made them with great difficulty. At some point it would have occurred to Naruto to create shadow clones and to henge them into smaller and smaller shapes. Smaller eyes and hands would have an easier time make tiny creations.

I'm glad people are enjoying the story so far.

Chapter 8

Taro Mark Nine guided his three genin to the Village Hidden in the Leaves. For the first time in years, Naruto rode in the belly of his puppet. That had necessitated a return to a hollow puppet design. But, the overall puppet was a far cry from the Taro Mark One.

Fools who thought puppets could only be made from wood were wrong, like those performers in Suna so many years ago. The experiments on animals had been sickening, but this new Taro had a living skin and functioning blood vessels and a perfect chakra network.

Naruto was now fourteen, but he thought of himself as a father figure for his genin. He was a short little teenager inside the puppet, but he appeared a towering figure of knowledge. He didn't act young; he couldn't afford such a luxury.

This whole enterprise, primarily hiding so long inside and behind puppets, was the work of a madman, Naruto liked to think to himself. There were moments when he reveled in the notion that he was different from anyone else in the whole world.

He had been gone from his homeland for six years (and had not spoken to another person in his true guise since then). It was painful in so many ways to return, but he couldn't send his genin into Konoha without venturing there himself.

He knew his own mind was broken, that he was dangerously insane. That his techniques and ideas were beautiful and horrible in the same instant, as glorious as stripping bald rabbits of their skins in order to give a puppet the appearance of life.

His biggest concern: he had no idea what he would do when he saw the Old Man. Would a finger twitch, a heartstone'd Puppet Clone spring up and decapitate the Hokage? He didn't know.

That anger still festered inside Naruto. It had fermented into obsession, probably, and into the kind of genius that didn't appear very often. He would gain strength; he would prove the Hokage wrong; no matter the cost.

Taro turned to look at his single file of genin behind him. Rough and weak in the beginning; the 'dregs' of what Grass had to offer. Throwaways. Not anymore.

Taro and his genin team were the only team selected to represent Hidden Grass Village in this tournament.

In the years since Taro had been a jounin, Grass's reputation had risen. They still didn't qualify to have a leader considered a Kage (nor did they want one), but they were a rising power. It was necessary to continue to show power; send only the best! Fourteen other active genin teams would wait until the Chuunin Selection Exam was hosted by Grass in six months.

Taro and his team were deemed strong enough to hold up to whatever underhanded tricks would were likely in a foreign tournament like this. (In fact, in the jounin lounge, Taro's genin team was referred to as 'that pack of animals.')

They'd all come a long way. First off, they learned to cease the pointless chatter when traveling or training. They were ninja, not gossipy traveling salesmen. Then Taro had broken every one of their bad habits from the Academy, ranging from lazy taijutsu stances to an inability to move silently through the grass or the sand or over the water. Finally, he had each of them test out a wide range of techniques and styles. He wanted all of them to find the best things for them…in addition to having at least a passing familiarity with the entire range of ninja techniques.

Number One, the silver haired young man, had become highly proficient in weapons techniques and genjutsu creation, all in pursuit of becoming a trapping expert. Unlike his first experience failing at hiding in a stand of bamboo, Number One was now good enough to give Taro some difficulty locating the boy's traps (if Taro didn't use his unfair advantage with micropuppets as scouts). He was superb at hiding a variety of weapons and then covering them naturally and with subtle genjutsu. More than one missing-nin had fallen victim to Number One's efforts.

Number Two, the formerly mouthy girl, had pored through Konoha's stolen medical scrolls. She turned her nose up at the chakra scalpels that many medic-nins used to protect themselves on the battlefield. Instead she preferred longer range attacks. Jutsus to repair horrifying battlefield wounds were perverted into jutsus that gave horrifying battle wounds. The mouthy girly girl was now more vicious than any chuunin Grass currently had…and a better strategist.

Too bad for the other genin here that, in Grass, a genin could not become a chuunin without participating in the Chuunin Selection Exam at least once. Few rarely returned a second time, even if they hadn't been 'passed' by the official Exam criteria. The whole 'Exam' was a farce staged for Daimyos and the wealthy to watch 'civilized' gladiatorial games every six months. It was entertainment, with no other true value. Taro and his team all knew it.

Number Three, the formerly somnolescent young man, was an even bigger 'heavy hitter' than Number Two. All of his uniquely crafted jutsu (with Taro's assistance), utilized his affinities of wind and water. In most cases, Number Three deployed devastating area-affect techniques with superheated steam. Even getting tagged by any of Number Three's techniques was enough to break most ninja.

They'd been Taro's team for more than two years. They were long past D-ranked missions; rather they were the only genin team regularly running hunter-nin type operations. The bounties on runners from Iwa and other Hidden Villages were substantial and now made up a good deal of the budget in Grass.

Naruto was proud of them. They were superb. As a team they'd be able to take down any single jounin in Grass or Stone or even Hidden Leaf.

Of course, he never told them that. He found that insults and impossible training regimes worked better. Instead of breaking like cheap glass, these diamonds in the rough had the crisp faces of a beautiful stone.

Taro held up his arm and the four of them stopped moving. He turned to face his students and motioned them off the road.

"We are within five kilometers of Hidden Leaf. Once we enter the walls, we will speak only in code or through hand signals unless absolutely necessary. Understood?"

One, Two, and Three all nodded.

"This village will seem very welcoming. In my own time here, I have observed that failing. People who enter Hidden Leaf believe they are safe because Hidden Leaf is supposed to be invulnerable, the strongest of all the Hidden Villages. People, even experienced ninja, relax their guard here.

"Let me remind you to always be on your guard. Hidden Leaf is deceptively welcoming. It is a dangerous place, especially when it opens its doors to the jounin-genin teams from other villages during a tournament like this one.

"I will be very displeased with all of you if any of you is harmed in this place. You are genin of Grass and have proven satisfactory in your acquisition of skills…."

Number Two raised her hand. "Number Four, you sound like you dislike this village?"

Taro nodded. "That is correct. It is the reason I am giving you this warning."

"Why, Number Four?"

Taro was quiet a moment. "A ninja village is a military installation, by definition. In this place, they have forgotten that. They proclaim open principles; rule by military and civilians; a respect for peace and prosperous life and well-treated ninja. The truth, in my infiltration work, is very different. The Tsuchikage is a hard, horrible bastard; everyone knows that. The Hokage, known as the God of Shinobi in these parts, is a kind, powerful, respectable gentlemen…but he's done things even worse than the Tsuchikage would even dream. We're ninja, but we're often taken in by surface appearances. I despise this place and I would be sure that none of you are hurt here."

Number Two wasn't done with her questions yet. "If you hate this place, why did you agree to bring us here?"

"Because we're the best. Grass must live up to its fine reputation."

That gave slight smiles to the genin team. It was as close to a compliment as they would ever hear.

"My final words on this topic. Be careful here. This place is more political than any other village I've been in…and I've been to all of them. They will sacrifice a ninja or a hundred ninja to save a civilian if it would make them look good to the eyes of the wider world. They claim to have a will of fire, but their strength is a sham. When you come up against them in battle, you will find them weak. Do not kill them; do not martyr them; rather, expose their weaknesses and hobble them. Questions?"

The genin had nothing to say. They had their orders. Maim and wound the others in the tournament; expose the weakness.

The four ninjas arrived at the main gate at noon. A bored chuunin looked at them and then demanded papers. Taro handed over the invitation. In exchange, the chuunin gave each of them a pass to be in Konoha for the exam.

Taro gestured that he would give the team a brief tour through the village before taking them to their quarters. Taro passed by the Ninja Academy, site of the first part of the exam, the Hokage Tower, several training fields, the famed Konoha Bathhouse, and several markets and grocery stores.

The quartet returned and took up a single room in the Running River Hotel. Once inside, the place was scoured for surveillance…and several types were discovered. They left the bugs in place and continued using only code and hand signals.

This was not unexpected.

The three genin and their jounin-sensei assembled tents in the room and slept peacefully through the night.

The exam starting the next day would mark a change in the status quo. It would be a great, terrible, perfect day.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

His genin team easily passed the written and psychological portion of the test. Taro had actually done worse things to his genin than this Ibiki fellow ever promised to do.

Taro had suggested several out of the way locations for his genin to train. Taro, and Naruto inside of him, were walking up the Hokage Monument…a place Naruto had once loved.

He stood on top of his father's head and speculated. What would a normal life have been like? What would he have been like with a human leg and a Konoha Ninja Academy education? There were no answers, no surety.

His mind wandered until he felt a tingle come up a chakra string. Then a few more. Then a lot.

The micropuppets watching over his genin reported a massive disturbance.

Taro ran down the face of the monument and followed his chakra strings back to the source of the disruption. The closer he got, the better he could feel the foreign chakra. It was stronger than he'd ever felt before…an order above anything else. Not even the Old Man felt like this, but then Naruto had never seen him in a battle mode.

When he arrived in an odd cemetery near to a training ground, he had to smile. His three genin were dishing out everything they had. They weren't winning, but they were holding back a ridiculously strong opponent. Hell, it was one of the Sannin. The Snake Lord, Orochimaru. He looked uncannily like his last Bingo Book photo, like he hadn't aged a day.

Taro was worried now. He'd been confident his team could overwhelm any jounin, but battling a Sannin to a standstill was a ridiculously impossible task. He wondered if he would be up to this task…he'd certainly never experienced anyone that challenging.

Taro leapt between his exhausted students and the Sannin. As he made the distracting move of drawing his sword from his back, dozens of micropuppets the size of fleas slammed into the Snake Sannin and injected small doses of chakra poison.

One of Number 3's steam attacks managed to nick the temporarily stunned Sannin. Then Taro's sword, enrobed in vigorously swirling wind chakra, drew blood. The Sannin tried to make the handseals for some technique, but realized quickly that his chakra wasn't flowing right.

Anger coursed over his face. He had apparently mastered a seal-less shunshin as he disappeared seconds later.

Taro remained vigilant. The Snake Sannin was known as a tricky bastard. Perhaps he had a way to overwhelm the chakra poison…. After two minutes, Taro relaxed his guard and dropped down to check on his students.

His genin were wrung out, but otherwise unharmed. Taro cautioned them not to speak until they were someplace safe. He set them off at a rapid pace and kept track of their general health. None of them were injured or bleeding, although Number One seemed to realize the very high level of difficulty of the person they'd just fought.

Naruto led them to one of the training fields packed with tall trees and dense vegetation. It wasn't far from the Forest of Death, site of the next portion of the Chuunin Selection Exam.

He motioned his team to sit. "Are you all well?"

Number One seemed to be going into shock. "I thought we were going to die…."

Taro nodded.

Number Three was breathing hard, having consumed a lot of chakra in the battle. "Who the hell was that?"

"One of the Sannin, Orochimaru…."

Number Two shivered and looked instantly pale. "We fought off a Sannin?"

"You did very well, Number Two. You held off a very skilled ninja for two minutes. It was good you maintained your active awareness protocols…."

"How did you know we were in trouble, Number Four?" Number One asked.

"You're my students. I wouldn't leave you in a potentially dangerous place like Hidden Leaf without some way of tracking you."

"Thank you," Number One said.

"I don't remember anything about the Sannin, Number Four. Who are they?" Number Three asked.

"A genin team trained by the eventual Third Hokage. They became very powerful and each acquired powerful summoning contracts. They are the kind of show-and-tell ninjas I warned each of you from becoming. They each have substantial skills, but when in trouble they rely upon outside power such as their boss summons."

Naruto could see the value of a summons; he knew his father had contracted with the toads. But, Naruto knew exactly who his godfather was, a godfather he'd never met before. He did not have any reason to feel charitably toward the Sannin. Jiraiya would have a lot to answer for should Naruto ever run into him.

His students were still trying to process all this. Taro continued with his explanation.

"Orochimaru, in particular, is a pox on humanity. He's not the worst thing out there, but he is another significant Konoha mistake that they never bothered to clean up. He's like toxic waste dumped into a pristine lake. Poisons everything he touches."

The group sat quietly and slowly came back to proper color. Heart rates went down. Adrenaline flows began to taper off.

"What do we do now, Number 4?"

"You tell me exactly what happened. Did he say anything to you?"

Number One shook his head. "The first I knew I heard a creepy laugh when we were walking back from training. I dodged to the right to avoid a kunai in the back."

The others added in their remembrances. Orochimaru neither said nor did anything to indicate his purpose in attacking Taro's team. He was going for the kill.

"Are you going to inform Konoha officials?" Number Two asked.

"Yes. I suppose I will. If I don't, Grass won't be able to lodge a protest after this fiasco is over. Konoha can't even keep its famed criminals out of its borders."

Taro escorted his team to their shared room in the hotel and set up several traps. Number One added his own traps to the mix. Taro also unleashed a variety of micropuppets to keep watch over his students.

"I will return with dinner in an hour or so. I'm sure I don't have to tell you to keep the door closed."

Taro made the familiar journey to the Hokage Tower and wondered if it would just be easier to inscribe a couple hundred exploding seals throughout the building – rather than talking to the beasts who worked there.

He stalked inside the building, ducking to get in the door. "I need to see the Chuunin Exam coordinator. Now!"

He was a foreigner, by his hita-ite, but his voice alone got people moving around. A few minutes later, he was escorted up to the see the Hokage along with three other ninja.

"Jounin of Grass," the Old Man said, "I am coordinating these Exams myself. My section heads were just in here discussing the event. How may I help you?"

"You can explain why my genin were attacked this afternoon….and by a former Konoha ninja."

The Hokage leaned forward in his seat. "This is a serious charge. Can you describe the man who attacked your students?"

"Yes, I drove him off in the end. It was your student, Orochimaru…."

Taro didn't get to say much more as he had to dodge a kunai thrown by one of the examiners.

"That Snake Bastard was here…and you, you nobody of all people, claim to have driven him off…."

After thirty minutes of pointless discussion, wherein this Anko person related many of her hatreds of her former sensei, Taro excused himself. "I must return to my students. I will be lodging a formal protest after the exam. Your security is pitiful."

The Hokage tried to stop Taro and apologize, but the tall ninja was surprisingly nimble and fast.

"If this is true, Orochimaru can't mean anything good for us," the Hokage opined. "Do we need to change the Second Exam? Or cancel the whole thing? He's here for a reason and now he's got some punk Grass jounin who managed to chase him off. He's got his ego bruised. He's not going away."

Ibiki consented to a change of exam. Anko proposed staging the Second Exam, but with Henged ninja, in order to capture or kill the Snake Sannin. Gekko Hayate had no firm opinion.

In the end, the Hokage talked himself out of changing the exam. "No, it's tradition to have a fight in the Forest of Death. We would not be able to create a satisfactory replacement in less than twelve hours. The Second Exam will proceed as designed. May Kami bless us and protect the genin."


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Taro had his genin calm and collected by five the next morning. He signaled that they were leaving to eat. Naruto had them in a deserted training ground five minutes later.

He pulled out a small scroll and unsealed a massive quantity of food. He pushed a reasonable quantity of food off the sealing scroll and then collapsed the storage seal again.

"Eat. It may be the last normal meal you have in some time," Taro said.

None of the genin objected. None of them spoke until the food was gone. They had all been trained to take food when it was offered; to take sleep whenever possible. Their questions could wait.

Taro ate little and started speaking once Number 3 finished eating. "I have not heard about any cancellations, so I have to assume that the decrepit Hokage did nothing with my warning. They may have people patrolling the exam area, but it would take a large group of trained ninja…or a group with highly complementary skills, like you three…to even budge a Sannin who didn't want to leave. Thinking back over the situation yesterday, you were lucky that the Sannin didn't pull out his major techniques. He must have been trying to be 'subtle' with his infiltration. Inside that forest…or in other places, who knows? Whatever happens is not going to be anything good.

"He could pull out a technique strong enough to burn a quarter of that forest, I have no doubt. Or he could summon Manda, the boss snake. The damage that particular summon could inflict would be massive. We were lucky yesterday. He underestimated you once; he won't do it again. Okay? Warning over."

The three shared looks.

"What should we do, Number Four, if he returns?" Number One asked.

"The risk is low you'll run into him again. His plan, whatever it is, is bigger than three genin from Grass. So, try to ignore this threat for now. Strike fast, strike hard, hamstring everyone you come across. But, if you come across anyone with the feel of Orochimaru's chakra, flee. I had hoped this wouldn't be necessary, but it seems it is."

Taro reached into one of his pockets and pulled out three small carved blocks of wood.

He handed a rhinoceros sculpture to Number One; a wolf sculpture to Number Two; and dragon sculpture to Number Three.

"These are of my creation. In a dire emergency, channel chakra, as much as you can spare, into these. The more chakra you pour into it, the larger and more powerful these guardians become…."

Number Three looked confused. "Is this a summon animal?"

Taro shook his head. "No, this is an autonomous puppet that expands and activates when you channel chakra into it. It will follow simple instructions from the one who activated it. It was inspired by summoned creatures, but it doesn't require a contract…."

Number Two turned her sculpture over and over. "How big will it get?"

Taro looked up and saw it was still an hour until daybreak. "I have another in my pocket. Why don't I show you."

Taro pulled out a carved statue of an orangutan and channeled his chakra into it. As it began to expand, he threw it thirty feet away at the edge of the clearing. Fifteen seconds later it stopped growing. It was easily as tall as the tallest trees, more than thirty meters tall.

The orangutan had long, razor sharp claws and its face looked angry terrifying with a mouth full of teeth.

Taro looked up and yelled, "Attack that tree." He pointed. A second later the tree was uprooted and being used as a toothpick in the construct's mouth.

The genin were shocked into silence, but not for long.

Number One got in the first question, "How hard is it to damage?"

Taro smiled. "A determined S-class opponent could take it down in a few minutes, maybe six or eight. Attacking tiny ninja isn't the strength of these creatures, though. I'm giving them to you more to protect you from giant summons. Orochimaru is known for using summon animals in many of his techniques."

The rest of the morning passed in training and discussions regarding how best to handle the Forest of Death. Taro had heard several hints from Konoha jounin about this segment; the fools couldn't keep their lips shut even during a test.

Taro walked his students to the test beginning. They didn't notice it but he left a few hundred micropuppets scattered on his students. Half of them were loaded with chakra poison seals; the other half were loaded with a paralysis solution.

Such an arsenal could give his students a needed advantage in an ambush.

He left his genin at the staging area. He would be tracking their progress through his micropuppets. High levels of chakra in an area vibrated right down the chakra strings, like a primitive form of communication.

Taro had prepared them and equipped them with emergency protections. They would do well.

Taro had to ponder the bigger issues. What exactly was going on in this stupid village?

Security had always been relaxed, after all Naruto had escaped at the age of eight and returned without notice at age nine. But not to notice a Sannin entering the village…not to up the readiness of the ninja corps when foreigners were in town. Did they want to be invaded and conquered?

It certainly seemed like dereliction of duty.

It didn't take long for Taro to find where some of the other jounin were waiting out the second exam, a dive bar near to the largest ninja store in Konoha.

Taro took in the various hita-ites. Only a couple from Konoha; Rain had a few; Suna had one; a few of the smaller villages, like Waterfall and Tea; and one was a musical note, which Taro didn't recognize. The one wearing the note scowled at Taro before schooling his expression.

Interesting.

Taro ordered a beer and sat down. He was going to get a reading of the room. It didn't take long.

The Suna jounin walked over to Taro's table and sat down.

"I hear you're one tough son of a bitch," the jounin stated.

Taro laughed. "Bunch of gossipy old women, instead of ninjas."

"About damn right. I'm called Paku, sensei to the most ragtag group of genin I've ever seen."

"I'm Taro of the River. My students will do well."

Paku swallowed some beer and then smirked. "Tell me, is it true you ran into a certain snake-like man yesterday?"

Taro raised his bottle and smiled.

"I see. I'd be real curious how a guy like you can drive off someone like Orochimaru."

Taro realized this was more than idle gossip now. The man was fishing for a reason. He had the slightest tone of desperation about him.

Taro began to open his mouth to respond, when he felt vibrations of a sort come down his chakra strings. His genin were nearing something…unnatural. He took direct control of a dozen micropuppets that flew out of the clothing they were hiding in. A hundred meters away, the Suna genin team, or their smallest team mate, was destroying another team. A bloodbath.

The chakra was wrong. It was demonic and it came from the small ninja.

What was it? As Naruto watched more and more of the horror, he had an awful realization. The red head was jinchuuriki. Not only that, he was directly accessing demonic chakra and skills. A shiver went down Naruto's back.

Suna had brought an undeclared demon container.

They were up to something. The way this jounin was unsubtly probing for information. Curious; disturbing.

"If such a thing did happen, you'll have to read about when I finally get around to publishing my memoirs."

Taro smiled. Paku laughed. Very few ninja lived old enough to sit down and write memoirs.

"I like I like you, Grass Guy. You tell your genin how to get through the Forest?"

"No. I didn't get a copy of the plans. Did Konoha hand those out?"

A shake of the head. "Just to their jounin, it sounds like."

"Well, cheating is a tradition, isn't it?"

Paku finished off his drink and stood up. "The only ones who yell about cheating are the losers."

Taro nodded and tilted his beer back. "I'll drink to that."


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Taro's three genin came across one of the teams from Rain thirty minutes after entering the Forest of Death.

They seemed not to notice the Grass team as they began a watch. The team exchanged hand seals as they debated a plan. Number Two was in favor of spilling a little blood. However, it was Number Three, the steam user, who suggested something more subtle…and far less likely to give away their position in the forest.

Number One laid a genjutsu to keep the Rain ninja wandering in circles. That was fun to watch. Number Two mixed up a mild hallucinogenic poison that would take a week or longer to exit their systems. She looked a bit cross that she wouldn't be allowed to cause anyone's arm to rot off or anyone's appendix to burst. Number Three collected the sealed poison vial from Number Two and gave the kunoichi a hard look. He just hoped that she hadn't prepared a distillation of sarin or something equally lethal to spite Numbers One and Three.

After finally deciding the poison was what they had asked for, Number Three timed his throw and sent the vial high into the air, a high arcing curve designed to put the vial over its three targets. When it was just a few feet above all three of the Rain ninja, Number Three sent a small focused blast of steam. The vial cracked and rained down the poison. Within moments, one hit the ground shaking. The other started attacking each other.

They were simple to disarm and incapacitate using nerve clusters after that. The Grass genin threw tree branches over their still breathing victims and counted it as a success.

It was easier than going fishing with a stack of exploding notes.

They'd been given a Heaven scroll before the gates to this exam begun. With this attack, they recovered an Earth scroll forty minutes into the exam. It was good. They looked forward to discussing the operation in the after-action conference with Number Four. The only thing he could scold them for was putting together the plan too slowly and arguing too much about it.

Now the question was: what next.

A few hand signals between Taro's genin settled the question: end the test or continue? They'd remain in the forest a bit longer, deal with a few other competitors, gauge up the people who might actually be tough.

Number One led them deeper into the Forest, knowing that a team from Waterfall had entered not too far from where he and Two and Three had entered.

Unfortunately for that plan, the lone team from Sand was already slaughtering the easy marks from Waterfall…slaughtering, literally. The short red-head had total control of sand and a total lack of sanity.

The genin stayed hidden until well after the Suna genin passed away. With handseals, they compared notes.

Number One: Red boy on a whole other level. Would steam hurt him, Three?

Number Three: Don't want to find out. Girl was wind user. Could push steam back in my face.

Number Two: My jutsu go through wind fine. Number Four has tested extensively.

Number Three: What about painted boy?

Number One: Curious bundle on back. Maybe puppet user who hasn't learned any storage sealing? Number Four lectured on strengths and weaknesses. Likely into deception and hiding.

Number Two: Let's get away from red head now. Don't want to see that Desert Funeral thing again.

The trio encountered three more teams…and trapped their minds and poisoned them without ever being detected. They sealed the unneeded scrolls they recovered into leaves or other forest detritus. It was a standard battle tactic, at least standard as far as their teacher had instructed them: denial and destruction of critical resources.

They were beginning to think about heading for the tower when they felt more of the chakra from the cemetery, the Snake Sannin's chakra. This time it wasn't a little bit…the ninja was throwing around some massive techniques.

He had come into the Forest then, even after Number Four had warned the Konoha officials. Number Four had been right so far…and that the Sannin hadn't come to see them again. What was he here for, during a test of simple genin?

None knew. All three would admit to at least being…nervous. None would own up to feeling sheer terror.

Number Two: Number Four was right. These people are fools. Train up powerful shinobi without regard to whether they're at all sane.

Number One: Don't need a lecture, Two. Need a plan. Stay in Forest overnight or head to Tower?"

Number Three: I don't care to face that freak again. He's throwing around chakra now that would take us down in seconds. We survived yesterday because he was trying to be sneaky.

Number Two: Fine. Tower, here we come.

They encountered only a single additional team in the Forest on their way to the central building. The all-kunoichi team from Tea Country was poisoned without incident; their scroll sealed and hidden.

They arrived safely just after midnight. They unsealed their scrolls and were greeted by a Leaf chuunin moments later. They stopped on the way to their quarters only to grab food.

As they got to their quarters they noticed the name plate on the next suite over: Hidden Sand. It was going to be a long four days trapped with those loonies from Suna.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Taro thought about going to sleep after he felt his team reach safety in the Tower. But he couldn't get his brain to shut down. Operating a variety of puppets like Naruto did kept his mind continually occupied.

And it was circling around Orochimaru and the oddities with Suna.

Sleep sometimes came…and it sometimes stayed away like an upset, pouting child.

Taro got up and began wandering the village.

He hadn't had a chance to do that in the light of day, not with his trio to keep on the straight and narrow. He walked down streets and remembered what they'd smelled like in the daylight with people moving on them and sun beating down.

He meandered near to where his apartment building had stood. The fire he'd started had evidently destroyed a portion of the building; it had been razed but nothing else yet stood in its place.

He walked over to that ramen stand he'd loved. It was closed now, but the scent of flavored broth hung tauntingly in the air.

There was that playground that was usually deserted in the evenings. He had first used a swing set there. He decided, what the hell.

For twenty minutes he pretended to be a kid, rather than a teenager trapped inside a puppet. He swung and he laughed and he tried to think good thoughts about the place he'd come back to.

There weren't a lot of good memories…mostly of the Old Man in his office…or in that ramen stand…talking, listening to Naruto. That was before his cold, bureaucratic period, of course.

Eventually he left the park. He was close now, close to a place he didn't want to visit.

He hesitated to walk down a certain street, but eventually his feet took him to where his heart didn't want to go. This was where he'd been crushed between two carts. This was the alley he'd been chased down. This was the store where he'd tried to buy two plums.

A sleepless Naruto wondered what had ever happened to the man. Was he the Kurosawa of Kurosawa Grocers? Did he live upstairs in the apartment above the store? Was his light on up there now?

Taro jumped up and took a peek inside.

He saw that hateful man, much aged, passed out in a chair. The wasteful lights were on inside the apartment. Naruto could see everything so clearly.

The cause of so much pain had both his legs; had his health; was free to come and go and do as he pleased. He hadn't been forced to become an exile; he hadn't been forced to reverse engineer techniques in order to get training to be a ninja; he wasn't living the life of another, watching life on the outside pass him by.

The old man was free, completely free.

Something snapped inside of Naruto's mind. Anger, blinding red rage poured through him. He didn't know he had this kind of thing inside him. Was it the fox coming loose? Or was this from inside his own heart and mind….

His arms ripped the window from the building (the Taro puppet was designed to be ten times stronger than a human body). As the aged man woke from his sleep, he didn't realize the danger he was in.

"What? Why are you in my apartment, foreigner?"

Taro said nothing. His arms began raining blow after blow down onto the man's body. Ligaments cracked and tore. Bones chipped, broke, and ground together. Muscles sustained intolerable amounts of damage. Within thirty seconds, the grocer who refused to sell Naruto plums…who chased him away to meet two crushing carts in a busy street…who never received punishment of any sort…he was dead.

His body looked like a small calf's that had fallen into a pulverizing machine. Blood, and meat, and sinew dripped onto the carpet, spread everywhere.

When he stopped breaking a dead man's bones and tissue, Taro surveyed the bloody mess. Naruto captured the true image of his rage…and promptly vomited inside the confined space of Taro's hollow center.

The stomach acids burned slightly on his mouth, face, chest, and hands. He roused himself from the red rage he couldn't stop seeing in front of him. He needed to get away. He needed to wash up. He needed to pray to Kami for forgiveness.

He needed to check his seal to be sure that the fox wasn't loosening his bonds.

Taro leapt away from the damaged apartment, jumping from roof to roof until he reached a tranquil training ground. He cleaned himself in a stream running through the property. Naruto had to exit Taro and then submerge his Taro puppet in the water to get out all the vomit.

But the running water did nothing to wash away Naruto's current self loathing. He had finally given into his impulse for wrath. And it was horrible.

He climbed back inside of Taro and slept the night in the forest.

Finally, he did fall asleep. Hard asleep. Slept better than he had in years.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

The next day, a stunned and dismayed Hokage would visit the crime scene. He had never before in his tenure as Hokage visited a civilian crime scene, but he had kept the name Kurosawa in the back of his mind.

He had expected something to eventually happen to the man…but he hadn't expected this. No, not at all.

A piece of the man's cracked skull had been flung to the ceiling. It hung there still, held in place by drying gore.

This was the work of a Naruto he didn't know. Or, the Hokage reminded himself, the work of someone who knew of Naruto, or acted on his command. It might not be Naruto's hand that did this, just his voice ordering it.

The style was all wrong, for one thing. Naruto's puppetry was elegant and hard to detect (the Hokage had fallen victim to the same trick twice, a feat few could claim to have gotten past the God of Shinobi); this attack was more like a mauling. The ex-ninja didn't have an unbroken bone larger than a few centimeters.

What had happened to Naruto in the last six years? The Hokage had recognized that the boy was angry. Was this brutality a result of his tenant? He hadn't felt demonic chakra last night….

Why was Naruto back after his self-imposed exile? To do more of this? To kill more Leaf civilians or ninja?

Had he snuck in with all the foreign ninja in town for the tournament? The Hokage felt old, bone weary old.

It was most disturbing. The Hokage prayed that Naruto had not done this thing, but he could do nothing but believe that the small blonde boy was involved.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Taro regarded the Preliminary Eliminations with a bored expression.  He didn't have a clue why there was a prelim round.  Only five of twenty-two teams finished the Forest of Death exam.  Surely the rich civilians, Lords, and ninjas could stand to watch 15 competitors demonstrate their skills.

Taro looked over the genin standing below him.  The Grass team, the Sand team, an odd bunch from Sound, and two teams from Konoha.  By the way the Hidden Leaf members looked, they were surprised so few Leaf teams finished.  Apparently three rookie teams had been entered and none of them acquired both scrolls.  Indeed, one of the teams had suffered a fatality, an Akimichi.

The speeches and posturing ended.  Taro was only interested a single time in the proceedings. 

A Konoha genin, silver haired and in glasses, a geek of the highest order, excused himself from the prelims.  As he walked out of the venue, Taro eyes followed him and assessed his physical condition.  There was nothing wrong with him, nothing at all.

Interesting.

A few dozen spy-capacity micropuppets flew from a storage compartment and made their new home in the genin's hair and clothing.  This person merited more observation.

Someone with the stones to lie to the Hokage about his physical condition was either crazy…or up to something.

The matches began.  Taro watched to see what the current standard of genin was.  There were some interesting developments, but most of it was fairly low level.

The best match was a rather flashy battle between a lithe Leaf genin and that red headed monster from Sand, Naruto felt a chakra signature surge momentarily.  It was one he didn't like.  It was suppressed quickly, but Taro was designed to detect things like that.

Orochimaru was in the room.  The present battle had excited or enraged him.

Taro swept his eyes across the room.  He felt it again when the red headed freak almost crushed the Leaf genin.  There.  There, he was the Sound's team sensei.  Or at least hiding out in his form.  Bad, very bad news.

Taro's eyes remained fixed on the battles, but Naruto inside him was keeping an eye on the 'Sound jounin.'

Then something came down the chakra strings attached to the silver haired genin.

Kabuto was also speaking with…Orochimaru.  All of Naruto's attention went into listening in via his spying micropuppets.

"You dropped out again, Kabuto?" the Sannin asked.  The smile on his face looked cruel.

"I need to remain unsuspected for some while yet.  Then I can reveal more…of who I really am."

"Fine.  Please work with our allies to set everything into motion.  I expect our allies to have plenty of legitimate reasons to be in and out of the Leaf."

"My observations," Kabuto said, "are that our ace in the hole will perform as expected.  I followed him around before the tournament started.  The Leaf will be in for a treat."

"I will let you on your way, then.  One final thing: see what you can learn about the jounin from Grass.  He has a rather large, interfering nose.  He might need to learn a lesson.  Information, first, though."

"Yes, my Lord."

The pair parted and Naruto lost himself in thought.  He followed Kabuto on his viewing screen, but the 'genin' went nowhere else of interest.

The collaborator, Kabuto, had information that Naruto wanted for himself.  The 'genin' didn't know it yet, but his life was forfeit.

Taro paid half a mind to the rest of the exhibition, but he couldn't keep Orochimaru out of his thoughts.  The hints were there.  But Taro did not know the when and where, the fine details.  He really needed a better source of information on the man.

Taro stood impassive until the prelims were over and the final round draws were done.  He collected his three genin, all successful in passing into the finals.  It was expected.

"Come," Taro said.  "We will be leaving the village now.  We're not training in such a place as this for the next month."

Relief washed over their faces.  None of them had ever been in such a dangerous place as this village before.  Orochimaru struck twice; that red headed kid was a menace.  It was tough being on guard all the time.

In the preparations for leaving, none of his genin noticed Taro's creation of a half dozen Shadow Clones which promptly henged into other forms.  They had a task to complete.

As Taro took his students for a last dinner before departing Konoha for a month, the Shadow Clones approached to where the 'genin' Kabuto was speaking in hushed, rushed tones.  The spy micropuppets captured everything said…and now it was time to capture Kabuto himself.

Naruto needed to know what this interesting person knew.

The Shadow Clones formed up thick chakra strings.  Two of them coordinated their strike. 

Kabuto walked away from his meeting and turned down a darkened street when he felt foreign chakra enter his body.  Within a second, he lost all control of his muscles and began to fall.

Just as quickly he felt something holding him up.

It was the Shadow Clones doing it, of course.  One of the two Shadow Clones wielding chakra strings had penetrated Kabuto's spinal cord with chakra…and temporarily disrupted the transmission of nerve information at the C5 vertebra.  When the technique was released, Kabuto's spinal cord would be undamaged…so long as Naruto wished that to happen.

The other clone quickly deployed chakra strings to Kabuto's hands, legs, and major joints to keep him from slumping over like a worthless drunk.

The other Shadow Clones hung back in case anything unexpected happened.

Kabuto 'walked' to a darkened training ground.  The first test of the Puppet Master technique was a success.  In theory, it should work every time…but it was always in practice that things went wrong.

One of the Shadow Clones rifled through Kabuto's belongings and found a blank scroll.  The Clone traced out a complex sealing array and then placed Kabuto's forehead to the scroll.  An application of chakra later…and Kabuto was gone, leaving only the scroll.

All the Shadow Clones save for the one clutching the scroll dismissed themselves.  That Clone walked slowly toward the village gate.  He waited outside the village for nearly an hour before Taro plucked the rather valuable scroll from the Shadow Clone.

That Clone then returned inside the village and began its primary duty: espionage.

As Naruto thought about the storage scroll in his hand, he wondered just how things had gotten that bad, that wrong in his former home.  Spies walking everywhere; S-ranked ninja popping in and out.  Taro needed a better handle on the place and what the Snake Sannin was planning.  He needed accurate information.

Too bad this 'genin' Kabuto lay in the way.  It would be most unpleasant for him if he chose to be difficult.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

"Number Four, do you want your sculptures back?" Number Three asked.

"Hold onto them until the end of this tournament.  Better you have something in reserve."

They had traveled through the night and only begun talking once they hit the Grass Country border.

"Are we taking missions while we're back in Grass?" Number One asked.

Taro shook his head.  "No. You are on training leave for the next month.  I am going to help each of you to create at least one new original technique…plus I am going to ensure that you have the techniques and information necessary to handle your opponents.  We have a Hyuuga, a jinchuuriki, and some type of bizarre medical experiment…attaching sound-making machines to a human body.  It's rather…distasteful."

Naruto spent the rest of the run back to the village explaining what he knew of the Byakugan, what he knew of the bijuu and those humans unfortunate enough to imprison them, and his hypotheses about Orochimaru and the Hidden Sound Village.

His students were less than impressed…and were openly debating whether they should return to Konoha at all.  Number Three was visibly upset at having to fight a jinchuuriki.

"Stop it.  Number Three already has the beginning of a technique to deal with Gaara.  We'll need to get your steam even hotter…."

"What will that do, Number Four?"

"We will increase the pressure exerted by your air affinity to increase the temperature of your steam.  If we get it right, your superheated steam will be able to penetrate even sand armor, I'd expect.  The red head's 'ultimate defense' is not perfect."

The genin were not convinced.  Taro led his students to his apartment and offered them tea.

"Let me explain.  Every technique, no matter how imposing, has flaws.  So long as a ninja is aware of the flaws, he or she can adapt or compensate for them.  But this jinchuuriki has no other techniques we've seen other than his sand.  His body is thin and weak; he does not exercise.  I'd doubt he even has a taijutsu style.  He's relied upon a single style of ninja art…which we will be picking apart and destroying theoretically during our training period…and then for real in one month."

Number Three looked a little less pale, but he wasn't fully convinced.  "Fine, perhaps I can use a steam attack against him.  But how do I use it while protecting myself from his sand?"

Taro nodded.  It was an excellent question.  "You have realized the weakness of your steam.  It's powerful offensively, but offers little defensive protection.  Sometimes it is necessary to pair techniques together in order to minimize weaknesses.  Can you think of something that would stop sand?"

Number One nodded.  "A water technique of some sort.  Something that would soak the sand."

Number Two nodded.  "Or wind.  Something that flings back whatever sand approaches you."

"Okay.  Okay, I get it.  This isn't a death sentence," Number Three said.

"No.  Number Three will win his battle if I have anything to do with it.  You will be ready, I promise."

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Naruto gave his genin the morning off to recuperate from their vicious training cycles of the previous day.

He'd worked up a bit of technique using his wind affinity to mimic Gaara's sand-wielding ability.  From what he'd heard of Orochimaru and Kabuto's conversation, Gaara was involved in all of this.  He wanted his students prepared to deal with him.

He'd blasted Number Three with it for hours…and forced Numbers One and Two to take an hour each. 

He'd helped Number Two with a vicious new technique…vicious and non-lethal.  She had Hyuuga Neji to deal with and Taro didn't especially want her to kill him.  Almost everything in Number 2's quiver was lethal and messy.

Number One had to go against that medical experiment from Sound.  He was working on a genjutsu that inflicted pain proportional to whatever the ensnared thought they were inflicting.

They were all becoming excited about their upcoming matches, even Number Three.  Their change in attitude, almost as much as the beating they'd received in training yesterday, earned them a day off.

There was also the fact that Naruto was excited to finally sit down to 'talk' to Kabuto.

He made the journey to the largest of his boltholes in Grass Country.  He'd long since turned it into his laboratory.  He had a room for distilling poisons.  He had a room for copies of the jutsu scrolls he'd collected and stolen.  Two rooms held various experiments with different micropuppets and his stick of tools and supplies to create them.  He now needed to make a new room for his newest acquisition.

It only took an hour to carve it with a rather useful Earth technique.  He fashioned a rather substantial door and hung it.  Naruto, still inside his Taro puppet, walked inside.

He pulled out a special storage scroll and set it on the floor.  He unraveled a hundred chakra strings and made ready to unseal the scroll's contents.

He pumped chakra into the sealed scroll.  A confused, immobilized 'genin' appeared on the stone floor.  Taro's chakra strings pressed up against Kabuto's spinal cord again, keeping him immobile.

Taro had spent a few hours preparing a restraining device he wanted to test out on this 'genin.'

Kabuto finally roused from his enforced stupor.  "Where am I?"

"Somewhere very safe," Taro said.  "You'll be my guest now, 'genin' of Konoha…or are you infiltrator from Sound?"

Kabuto's face tensed.

"How are you doing this?  Keeping me frozen?"

"I'm not about to start giving away my secrets, am I?  I would like to talk about Orochimaru and his plans for the Chuunin Selection Exam."

"I'm not telling you anything," Kabuto spat.

"You will, little 'genin,' you will if you ever expect to eat."

"I would rather die."

Taro smiled.  "Let me fit you up with your…restraints."

Taro pulled out long strips of something.  They didn't look like paper or cloth.  They had extensive and tiny seals all over their surface.   He affixed one strip to Kabuto's neck…where it promptly dissolved into the man's neck, leaving only the seals partially visible.  Taro stripped the rest of Kabuto's clothing and wound the strange strips all over his torso, his arms, and his legs.  Only after the last strip was applied to Kabuto's body did Taro apply chakra to the seals now permanently tattooed on his body.

Taro stepped back and threw a lightweight sheet over the naked genin's body.  Then he withdrew the chakra strings keeping Kabuto paralyzed.

Kabuto started to move and then he leapt at Taro.  Taro smacked him across the small room.  When Kabuto hit the solid stone, he flopped over and stopped moving.

"Let me be clear.  You will never mold chakra again so long as you fight me.  You will never mold chakra again if you ever lie to me.  With a thought these seals can activate.  You have five hundred exploding seals etched inside your body now, Kabuto."

A horror stricken Kabuto raised his head up from the floor.  "How could you do that?  How was it possible?"

"A lot of hard work.  Now, you will tell me what you know of Orochimaru's plans.  Be fast about it and I will find you some lunch."

Kabuto didn't like his chances.  He had turned on Sasori when Orochimaru offered a better deal.  Now this unknown quantity was offering a terrible deal, but it was better than being utterly destroyed.  The threatened five hundred exploding seals would do more damage to his body than his self-regenerative abilities would heal.

"I have worked with him for a few years but I've only ever met with him a handful of times…."

"No.  Let's start with what you know of his attack on Konoha."

Kabuto's head dipped toward the stone floor.  "I only know enough to complete my role.  I was to ensure that Uchiha Sasuke made it out of the Forest alive…even if he failed to make it into the finals.  I was to layer a genjutsu over the audience at the Finals once that Gaara kid begins his fight…."

Naruto felt sicker and sicker the more he heard of this plot.  Kabuto gave over a lot of information, but he didn't seem to possess the full plan.  This would all be very…problematic.

Naruto needed to finish his Puppet Clone technique.  He needed it in his repertoire if things went as badly as he feared.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

As Taro returned with his students a day before the Finals, everyone was in good spirits.  They had plans, and backup plans, and had been working on improvisation skills.

Taro expected some terrible things to happen in the next day or two.  He hadn't passed on his knowledge of the exact details of what was supposed to happen, but he had done everything to prepare them to survive.  Trial by fire for everyone involved.

The four showed up the morning of the Finals.  Taro led them through final stretching and sparred with all three of them at the same time. 

The first two matches went as expected.  The medical experiment had but one technique.  Number One trapped the kid in a genjutsu within seconds.  The boy proceeded to attack and attack.  His mind was so overwhelmed with redirected pain that the genin's nose began to bleed and he eventually fell over onto the ground, convulsing.

Every genin needed to be able to dispel a genjutsu.  It was a basic requirement for field operations.

The feared Hyuuga had a wider range of attacks, but he was a short-distance fighter only.  Number Two preferred medium and long range attacks.  She took a bloody ten minutes to demolish the 'pride of the Hyuuga.'  He put up a good fight, but he was completely outclassed.

The third match, the jinchuuriki versus Number Three, began as expected.  The weak red head deployed his sand and didn't even move around the field of combat.

Number Three used a high-level water technique to soak a good portion of the sand.  Then he went to stage two: an A-, bordering on S-rank technique for superheating and focusing a beam of steam.  His use of the technique pierced right through Gaara's remaining sand and his sand armor.  It created a hole straight through Gaara's shoulder which began to weep, then gush blood.

The red headed genin lost it then.  And all hell broke loose in the arena.

The bad thing which was going to happen…had just started.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

The many fires inside Hidden Leaf began almost simultaneously.  Fifteen clan compounds, two dozen apartment buildings, commercial buildings…everything was fair game.

It was a great diversionary tactic performed by two dozen infiltrators from Suna.  The command and control of the ninja force would break down…people would be trying to put out fires while the major strikes occurred.  The more ninja prevented from repelling the major Suna and Oto, the more devastating their entry would be.

Oto's trapping experts began their work rigging up the Hokage Tower and the Ninja Academy building.  Lord Orochimaru would detonate these buildings once his conquest of Hidden Leaf was complete.

While the infiltrators and trappers were inside causing chaos, the heavy hitters from both villages were outside the village walls trying to bring them down.  Some of Orochimaru's snake summons were queued up to crash through another section of the wall.  It was amazing that the ANBU hadn't even detected these massive forces queuing up outside the village.

Orochimaru's personal guards jumped through the city.  They had been performing a final search for Kabuto in the interim.  The 'spy' appeared to have fled already.  Lord Orochimaru would be most…put out.

Once they made it to the arena, Orochimaru had already captured the Hokage and begun his act of vengeance.  The Sound Four molded a massive shield and then performed the jutsu a second time to protect themselves from the Hokage who was trapped inside their bubble.

"The arrogance of this village," Orochimaru hissed to his opponent on top of the arena  "To invite your enemies, to bare your throat to them…and not even to carry a knife to the battle.  Where are your ANBU, sensei?  Why was this village so easy to destroy this day?  Are you truly ready to die?  Because I am most eager to kill you…."

The Hokage and Orochimaru were trading blows back and forth in hand to hand combat.  Orochimaru wanted to utterly rattle the Hokage before he pulled out his final, devastating technique, the Impure Resurrection of the Hokage's predecessors in office.

It had been a gamble attacking today. 

The disappearance of Kabuto had almost caused Orochimaru to call of this attack…but when the ANBU and chuunin patrols went as normal and the village wasn't on a higher security status, he guessed Kabuto hadn't defected to the Hokage's side.

He would have to find and…punish his infiltrator.   Many things necessary for this attack hadn't been done.  Kabuto would pay.  His medical expertise was valuable; but Orochimaru could not stand a traitor.  He was the only one of those permitted in the Hidden Sound.

Orochimaru batted away one of his sensei's rather pedestrian techniques.  He wished that Sarutobi would haul out his major techniques.  He wouldn't want to win against a frail, old man.

The Hokage summoned the boss of the Apes.  He needed to use every tool in his arsenal.  But he no longer had the chakra capacity to battle for hours against his student.  He knew what the surefire way to end Orochimaru's life was…but he didn't know if he could give himself to the Shinigami for all time the way that Namikaze Minato had.

It was a horrendous fate for one such as he.  To never see his deceased family, his one dead son, his mentors, all of his precious people.

"Are you your ready for a good fight, Enma?"  He would try to for an unexpected hit.  Something that wasn't as devastating as the Summoning of the Shinigami.

"As you wish, Old Friend," the Ape King said.

The Hokage remained nimble and his attacks with a bo would have been devastating to anyone not one of his students.  They had spent too many years training against him to be surprised by Sarutobi's style. 

The Snake Sannin continued to taunt and rant, but the Hokage didn't listen to it.  He was in this fight to preserve his village.  He had lived a long time, but he didn't want to go out when his village was in peril.  Not if he could fix his gravest mistake, not if he could somewhat repair his failure allowing Orochimaru to escape when his treacheries were discovered.

"You've never recognized your own faults, student of mine.  If you could not have this village, then you wish to destroy it?"

Orochimaru laughed.  "You are a narrow minded fool, protector of the weak, savior of stranded kittens everywhere.  This village is as foolish as it is weak.  I am only performing a service, a cleansing wash to get rid of all this rot."

The Hokage was not winning…rather, he was slowly losing.  The Hokage steeled himself to using the Shinigami Summoning technique.  It would cost him everything, but he knew he would take his greatest mistake with him.  The village deserved this much from him.

Orochimaru began the complex process of powering up his Impure Resurrection technique.  He was ready for a bloody fight with powerful servant 'puppets' at his disposal.

The Hokage worried that he did not recognize this technique.  If it had been developed by his student, it was likely to be powerful and disturbing.  He gripped his special staff and prepared to face whatever might come.

Then the Hokage disappeared.

There was no one more surprised than the Hokage.  He had a fraction of a second to recognize that he was trapped in some sort of sealing technique.  Enma in his bo form fell to the ground and dispelled. 

Orochimaru stood, dismayed.  His hands were frozen in the final handseals for his Impure Resurrection.  Where had that old bastard gone?  How had he escaped from inside this shield?  It was designed to kill anyone or anything that touched it.

"No.  No!  Where did he go?  Who fucked up?" 

He turned round and round glaring at his bodyguards.

Then he saw Jirobo fall over dead, then Kidomaru.  The shields began to waver then.  Then Tayuya collapsed.  The shields collapsed.  Orochimaru had no idea what was happening; he didn't even know it was possible to disrupt the shield.

Orochimaru glared at the unfair world.  Years of planning rendered useless.  He didn't even know how.

His mind began to grasp and prepare for the next phases of what he might do.  Sarutobi had fled with his life, but Orochimaru could still destroy the village and kill its weaklings.

He surveyed the roof and was preparing to jump off to cause more devastation when he felt a thousand tiny pinpricks all over his body.  He staggered at the sensation, then the flood of pain.  It had been a very long time since he'd felt anything like that…probably going back to his earliest experiments on himself to attain immortality.  He reeled but did not fall down.

His first thought was to flee, as self preservation was a key trait of any powerful snake, but then his anger and his ego overrode instinct.  He wanted to know who had ruined years of planning.  So many things had gone wrong.  His strongest potential vessel for his immortality technique, the Kaguya boy, had disappeared years ago.  Kabuto had disappeared.  Some jounin from Grass had managed to drive him off with a technique he couldn't unravel.  Now, this.

Orochimaru wanted blood; he wanted guts and brains and bones ground down to meal.  He wanted Sarutobi lying dead before him and Konoha little more than ashes blowing away in the wind.

Using his best chakra sensing techniques, he tried to locate the source of what was happening…and he found something.  In great pain, he turned and saw a most unpleasant face.  That ninja who'd prevented him from taking the faces of some Grass genin.  The man who stripped Orochimaru's ability to mold chakra…that ninja would die.

"You!  How did you do this?  That shield is the strongest technique of its kind.  Tell me and I will give you a swift death."

Taro smiled.  "You are the worst 'sneaky' ninja I've ever seen.  I had a very good idea about what you might do today, but you had no idea about me.  I wonder what that says about your intelligence gathering, Snake Sannin.  Oh, someone revealed to me that you're also quite a thief…." 

Taro yanked his hand. 

Pain shot through Orochimaru's body as his sword, The Grass Cutter, stolen the Grass Country years earlier, ripped through bone, stomach lining, muscle, and skin on its way to Taro's hand. 

Taro was glad he'd kept returning to probe Kabuto's loosened lips.  The existence of this sword inside of Orochimaru's body made this one-time-only attack possible.  Anyone with skill in chakra strings could do this, but it took a devious ninja to think of the attack at all.

It was very satisfying that Orochimaru's greatest close-range weapon was now turned against him.

Orochimaru collapsed.  How was that possible?  His sword ripped from him, through him?  Was this freak a magnetic field user, like that Kazekage his 'old pal' Sasori had been so enamored of?  Orochimaru had seen this ninja twice and been slapped like a small child, robbed of chakra molding and now his sword.  How?  Why! 

Everything hurt so much….

"I suspect you're immune to any poison you'd use, Orochimaru, so that sword wound won't necessarily kill you.  But I know you aren't immune to cancer.  Those tiny impacts you felt a few moments ago were the seeds of a thousand small cancers already racing through your body.  I estimate you have five days before your body fails, your organs eaten away from the inside.  From what I understand, you'll have to find a new host…."

The pale, bleeding Sannin woke from his misery when he realized that this ninja knew about his most secret researches.  Someone had betrayed him.

Kabuto…Karin…someone very close.  Orochimaru pushed himself up from his crumpled position on the arena roof.  He began making handsigns, but again realized he couldn't mold chakra.  The hole in his torso had apparently torn the chakra network in this body to shreds.

"I've heard all about your body swapping technique," the Grass jounin said.  "Good luck getting away.  Your guards seem to be…indisposed."

That hateful stare from the Grass ninja burned itself into Orochimaru's mind.  It was a face he would never forget.  He would have his revenge.  If it took a hundred years, he would have this man's life.  Orochimaru would still be young, agile, and beautiful while the ninja before him was old and infirm.

If it took that long, Orochimaru would find the old, weak, infirm man and end his life slowly, painfully.

The pooling blood reached into Orochimaru's field of vision, he didn't know why he was still alive.  This Grass ninja could have incinerated him by now, instead of staring.  The Sannin felt a hand grasp him, interrupting his dark musings.  He looked up and saw it was Sakon.  "My Lord, I couldn't move until now."

"Away.  Get us away," Orochimaru rasped out.  This would have been an excellent time to have Kabuto around.  If he wasn't a traitor.

The guard and his Lord shunshined away.

Taro smiled.  Anyone who threatened his team deserved to die.  Taro could have done worse to the Snake Sannin, but he relished the idea of tearing that creature apart slowly, piece by piece.

He felt an irrational amount of hatred toward the pale ninja, a hatred he would allow himself to quench.

Taro walked to the edge of the arena and observed the field of battle below him.  The useless ANBU watching Orochimaru's attempted assassination scattered when the Hokage disappeared; gone to locate him or help out repelling the invasion. 

Taro bent down and picked up an oddly inscribed stone and slipped it into his pocket. 

The Hokage had never left the dome, of course, just been sealed away into an unconventional storage vessel.  A chakra string was perfectly able to pass through that 'impenetrable' shield.  Arrogant ninja.  Orochimaru knew of Sasori's art and still disregarded its power.

The stone felt heavy in Taro's pocket.  It had been obvious to any watchers that the Hokage was using all his effort, all his will…and that he was losing.  Orochimaru had just been playing with him.

Taro needed to keep the Old Man safe for a while longer.  He wanted a word with him.

But that wouldn't happen if the rest of this disaster didn't end soon.  Taro looked into the distance and saw that the Suna and Oto ninja were still fighting.  Their leader was driven from the field…but they'd lose their lives in a pointless, failed battle.

Taro had thought long and hard in the last month about what he'd do when Konoha found itself in dire straits.  Could he separate out the Old Man of his memory from the colder Hokage?  Could he save the place the Old Man loved?  He could just as easily let the whole place burn.  Their arrogance had allowed this attack to occur.  Did he really wish to be a savior of some sort?

He stopped thinking and acted.  He could second guess himself later.

He concentrated and formed two thick chakra cables.  The individual strings stretched out and latched onto half burned boards or fallen stones all through the field of battle.  The process of inscribing seals was slower than he wanted.  Using twelve individual chakra strings on each nascent heartstone took thirty seconds to get his Mass Puppet Clone technique ready.

Naruto intended to name this particular usage of his Puppet Clones technique something else: the Flowing Red Death.

Nearly as fast as the Yondaime Hokage's Flying Thunder God technique…and far more devastating.  This was a technique that could destroy armies in seconds; end wars instantly; destroy and level villages.

He wished he didn't have to reveal his greatest technique to save this miserable place.

Seconds later, Naruto revealed how one ninja could destroy an entire army from a safe distance.  His left pinky finger twitched a few millimeters.  In front of every ninja Taro could see or otherwise detect a Puppet Clone erupted, forming up around its heartstone.  Each puppet slashed with fire or wind or lightning once or twice, and then each of them disappeared.  None of the newly dead even had a chance to blink. 

The mass slaughter of two hundred enemy ninja took less than a quarter second from activation to the clones' dissipation.

The few observers would only be able to report seeing a massive sea of red (the color of each puppet's hair, body, and clothing, a signature element of the Flowing Red Death meant to confuse and disorient anyone who might witness the technique).  After that, they reported dead bodies as far as the eye could see.  No ninja could defend against an attack so unexpected, so rapid, and so devastating. 

No one targeted did survive. 

In the coming days many would try to explain the attack and how it worked; no one would succeed at that, either.

Taro jumped down from the arena roof with the Hokage safely sealed away inside his pocket.  He needed to find where his students had gotten to…and to see if anyone had dealt with that insane red head from Hidden Sand.

Orochimaru was gravely wounded, the main body of the invasion force was destroyed, but Taro suspected that the worst was still to come.  Why did he let the Grass Council send him and his team to this Kami forsaken place in the first place?


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

A small awed crowd watched as that horrible demonic sand beast took swipe after swipe against massive…summons. A wolf larger than the Ninja Academy; a dragon longer than the eastern village wall; a rhinoceros with a horn jabbing in and out of the swirling sand of the raccoon-like abomination.

It was a terrifying sort of theatre, held in the forest outside the village walls.

No one in the crowd had seen anything like it. The guardian animals looked like summons, but they didn't act like them. Indeed, none of the higher level ninja knew who held contracts like these. They circled and enclosed and delayed the inevitable….

Except.

Except that every time the sand beast attacked one of the other animals, the wolf or the dragon or the rhino recovered from the wound and continued on their containment. They seemed to be waiting for something.

Thankfully, none of the otherwise useless onlookers one noticed three Grass genin weary with chakra exhaustion in the woods nearby. They were vulnerable right now and didn't want any attention focused their way. They wouldn't be able to defend themselves against even a determined civilian assassin.

It seemed like nothing would tip the balance. The three 'summons' versus that sand monster.

Then the scene changed.

A real summon entered the battle with a tall old man, his shaggy white hair aloft in the wind, on top of his head. The wolf, dragon, and rhino regarded the massive toad for a moment before returning to their confinement of the sand beast.

The small red headed child on top of the sand beast yelled at the white haired man. They feinted and parried their attacks. Then the red head smiled a cruel smile and fell asleep. The sand beast increased in strength. It was a demon almost fully in possession of its ancient powers.

Jiraiya the Toad Sage tried everything in his book of riddles. He used massive waves of oil-fueled fire. He tried sinking the sand beast in a massive chakra-driven swamp. Nothing worked. The sand whipped around faster and faster, stronger each passing second.

Jiraiya spoke in hushed tones to convince Gamabunta to leap directly at the sand beast, to destroy the jinchuuriki, to end the demon's physical manifestation.

It was a suicide move. Gamabunta would likely survive with only wounds. He could dissipate back to his own realm at will…even wounded he'd survive and get patched up. But Jiraiya would have to arrange a perfect strike at the sand kid or else he would die.

Gamabunta leapt into the air, but the target…something happened to the target.

The sleeping redhead went flying through the air and collided into a tree. His eyes popped open. Once he was awake, the demonic sand monster was disrupted.

Gamabunta fell through the air, passing through where the sand beast had been. He and his summoner landed in a thick, grating pile of sand.

The sand beast was no more. Someone or something had attacked the Suna kid.

But who? Why? And why didn't Jiraiya think of doing something like that. Damn, he was getting slow in the head. Gamabunta began yelling at Jiraiya for being a 'stupid pervert with brain rot from all your whoring around.'

Those huge 'summons' then vanished, too. Wolf, dragon, rhino: gone. Jiraiya hadn't had the time to even think about what they were…but, wow, damn. He need to question someone who'd seen the whole exchange.

Several Suna shinobi went to either help or kill off the red head, but Jiraiya saw another ninja intercept and restrain them. The tall, black haired man knelt down and spoke to the jinchuuriki.

The now fearful red head nodded a few times and began crying.

What in the hell could make a jinchuuriki cry, Jiraiya wondered. Less than a minute ago, he was trying to kill everything he set his eyes on. Who was this ninja who could say a few words and get that kind of reaction?

Jiraiya needed to talk to this ninja. He jumped off Gamabunta (who was still yelling at Jiraiya) and rolled onto the ground, one of his more elegant moves. He ran toward the red head and that other ninja. By the time he arrived, the red head had been packed off by Suna ninja.

The black haired ninja stepped in front of Jiraiya, a mildly menacing gesture. The Toad Sage stopped as this ninja was his target. (He could always catch up with the red head later. He'd almost certainly be heading to Hidden Sand. Jiraiya could slap on some new seals and keep that blasted tanuki under control.)

"You! Who are you?" Jiraiya bellowed. He was going for intimidation.

"I am the one who will repair that boy's poor seals," the ninja responded.

"I am a seal master, young ninja. I am the great Toad Sage…."

A roll of the eyes showed exactly what the Grass ninja thought of the Toad Sage. "Jiraiya, yes I know. I know much of your exploits, venerable ninja."

Jiraiya frowned. 'Venerable' was just a politer word for old. No old ninja could still bag a dozen different beauties a week…no venerable ninja would have the stamina.

"And your name?"

"I am called Taro of the River."

It didn't mean anything to the Toad Sage. He needed more information. "You fancy yourself some kind of seal master, then?"

Taro smiled. "I do fairly well. Now, please excuse me. I have students to look after."

Jiraiya help up his hand. "Those Grass ninja. You trained them?"

A look of pride erupted on Taro's face as he nodded.

"Those three are quite the powerhouse," Jiraiya said. "They'd be brutal on the battlefield."

"I will pass along the compliment, Toad Sage." Taro then disappeared.

"Wait…." Jiraiya still had questions. He had never heard of this Taro person before…and Jiraiya made it a point to know every seal master he came across.

After all, no ninja could cause havoc quite like a seal master. Sealing demons; releasing demons; engineering exploding tags large enough to demolish a fifteen foot wall. All the exploits of sealing masters.

"Damn. Now I need to find Sarutobi-sensei and tell him what I've seen."

The Toad Sage bounded away.

Taro looked at where Jiraiya had just stood. He waited for Jiraiya to leave before searching for his students.

Jiraiya.

The Toad Sage.

Naruto remembered the profile of the man locked among the Old Man's secret papers; he remembered the birth certificate for one Uzumaki Naruto listing Jiraiya the Toad Sannin as godfather. More anger bubbled inside Naruto. He began to regret helping to save this miserable place…save it for irresponsible assholes like this Jiraiya.

A plan formed in his mind.

Then Taro took off, tracking back to the micropuppets he had on his students. They weren't injured, but were too weak to fight or defend themselves. He needed to get them situated.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Jiraiya leapt all over the village, surveying the damage, helping where he could. His main priority right now was finding his sensei. He'd helped disarm a variety of explosives from the Hokage Tower, but…no Sarutobi. He'd helped to stabilize the damaged walls of the hospital, but…no Sarutobi.

He tended to the wounds; helped put out fires; transported some of the prisoners of the invasion…no Sarutobi.

The more he looked, the greater his fear. His sensei, the Hokage, was dead or captured.

What would Konoha do without its leader? Could it rebuild? Could it survive?

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Taro took his students to an out of the way training ground and threw up tents in the deep brush. He settled his students into bedrolls and made sure they drank water and took their ninja vitamin pills. They weren't dangerous like soldier pills, but they would help to repair the damage from mild-to-medium chakra exhaustion.

"I will be leaving some traps, but sleep with one eye open, as we like to say. I will return in a few hours to see how you are. If you're strong enough, we will return tonight or tomorrow…."

"Did the statues work?" Number Three asked.

Taro smiled. "You three saved Konoha…and they'll never know. As you remember, a jinchuuriki holds the power of a demon. But that boy had been driven insane by his. In his rage he released it fully…."

"How do you stop a bijuu?" Number One asked.

"I didn't need to," Taro said. "I only had to stop the technique the little boy was using. He'd gone to sleep and given the demon free reign. I used a simple technique called chakra strings to yank the boy off that sand creature and slam him into a tree. The crazed demon didn't even notice, he was too busy enjoying his freedom."

Number Two mumbled, half asleep. "I am glad. Did you collect the statues you loaned us?"

Taro shook his head. "No, they are designed to be used a single time. After the demon's fury broke, the three creatures released the chakra you gave them and dissolved into saw dust."

Number One had to chuckle. "You are paranoid about your techniques, aren't you, Number Four?"

"All good ninja should be. I would not have such things used against me."

With that he jumped from the tent and took off for the caverns beneath the Hokage Monument. He wanted a quiet place for a conversation.

When he released the seal storing the Hokage inside a chunk of broken masonry, the old man looked pale and determined.

"Where is Orochimaru?" the Hokage shouted. He was shaking and looking around in confusion.

"I save your life, and you wonder where your worthless student is. I drove him off…" Taro pulled a blade from the sheath on his back. "…after reclaiming this blade, the Grass Cutter, for my country."

The anger in the Hokage's eyes dimmed. "Thank you, then, for that service. How did my village fare?"

"In a few minutes you can see for yourself. But, I will say that I am displeased with what you did with the warning I gave you. Orochimaru entered the Forest of Death and wounded countless students, including the near fatal sealing of Uchiha Sasuke. I understand one of the Akimichi of the Hidden Leaf died. Then he pops up sitting next to you in the Arena at the finals. You are too old to remain Hokage."

"I should kill you for your insolence, young ninja. As you have just saved my life…I will tell you this is not your concern."

Taro nodded and made to leave the cavern. "One measure of success of a leader is always having a successor groomed and prepared to take over…without interruption. Had I not saved you, who would have picked up the pieces?"

An angry, sad Hokage blinked at the odd advice. "Again, this is not your concern. I cannot discuss village secrets with one such as you."

"You are correct, of course, Old Man. I made the Hidden Leaf 'not my concern' many years ago."

Taro vanished before the Hokage could ascertain what the Grass jounin meant. Then the answer came to him. "Naruto. He always called me Old Man. Perhaps he is becoming as strong as he claimed he would."

The Hokage could not lift himself from the floor for a few minutes as tears streamed down his face.

When the Hokage left the cavern to search for Naruto, the reality of the devastation in Hidden Leaf assaulted him.

The dead.

The wounded.

The families burned out of their homes.

Ninjas angry and ready for vengeance, needing a firm hand to restrain them now until a plan was ready.

Then, Jiraiya insisted the Hokage visit the hospital before doing anything else.

Being seventy with a severe case of chakra exhaustion was not a pleasant thing. As he was sent into an enforced sleep, the Hokage wondered if he should send an emissary to this Taro from Grass Country.

The ninja had saved the Hokage's life. Naruto might be angry, but he still cared for the village. A bittersweet realization.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

The Grass Team left in the predawn hours the next day. Numbers 1, 2, and 3 were feeling much better.

"I have not discussed it with the Grass Council obviously," Taro said, "but all three of you qualify as chuunin in my book."

"Thank you, Number Four," Number One said. The group then fell silent as they began their journey. By sundown they'd be in Grass Country. They were moving at a far slower pace than usual given the events of the previous day.

As with the last time he left Hidden Leaf, Taro left behind a few Shadow Clones. They had a task to perform.

A few hours later, when kunoichi and civilian women began attending the baths, the Shadow Clones discovered their target, Jiraiya, peeping. A few chakra strings interrupted the nerve signals from his brain. A quick storage scroll later…and Jiraiya was a captive.

Predictability in a ninja was a dangerous thing, as Jiraiya might someday finally learn.

All but one of the Shadow Clones dispelled. The remaining one henged into an injured man's face and clothing. It walked slowly, painfully, to the village gates. Mixed in among all the devastation, no one noticed how Jiraiya the Toad Sage left the Hidden Leaf Village.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Into every victory, tendrils of defeat must creep. Naruto and his team did not make it back to Grass without a nasty surprise.

A massive dark cloaked ninja erupted from the underbrush when the team was within ten kilometers of the Grass Country border. "I would speak with Taro of the River, please." The voice was gravelly and inhuman.

A chill went up Naruto's spine as he rested within the body of his puppet Taro.

He recognized this hulking beast.

The useful traitor Kabuto had described him exactly this way. This was a battle puppet of Akasuna no Sasori, the revered, insane puppetmaster from Hidden Sand.

The man was at least twenty years older than Naruto…and had been trained by other puppeteers. It was terrifying looking at this other puppet, looking and wondering what Sasori saw when he looked at Taro.

Would this master of the puppet technique recognize another puppeteer in Taro and Naruto? This was the worst possible person to meet up with on a day like this…with tired chuunin-to-be.

"My name is Taro," Naruto's puppet intoned in a perfectly human voice.

The revolting puppet in front of them gave Taro a careful scrutiny. "You are smaller than I expected. From the wild reports I've received, I figured you for at least fifteen feet tall. Is it true you eat a whole cow for breakfast in the morning?"

"I did not ask for a reputation," Taro said. His students watched and prepared. They did not know that Sasori was stronger even than Orochimaru on a good day.

"Anyone who can gut my old, tricky friend Orochimaru is worthy of a reputation, Taro of the River. I wonder what would happen if you and I were to fight, eh?"

Taro drew the Grass Cutter off his back. With his other hand, he prepared a hundred of his Puppet Clones in case of dire straits. Naruto didn't want to reveal that he was a puppeteer in front of this S-rank monster.

In truth, he wasn't even sure his self-designed puppet techniques would be able to cause any damage to another puppet master. Sasori wore a hardened shell so Taro's micropuppets and chakra poisons were useless. A master puppeteer could just as easily overpower Naruto's chakra strings attached to a puppet army as fall victim to it. If a fight broke out, he would have to go nuclear quickly. Naruto had devastating techniques, but he'd never fought against a skilled puppeteer before.

Naruto remembered a profile he'd read of the Uchiha among the Hokage's papers. "Their arrogance is astounding as they teach their children, 'Only an Uchiha can kill an Uchiha.'"

Naruto was fairly terrified that the real truth was that only a puppeteer could kill another puppeteer. Today was not the day he wanted to test that hypothesis.

After all, he knew from close calls in the past that experience could beat out superior techniques any day of the week.

Upon seeing Taro draw the Grass Cutter, Sasori did not attack. He chuckled. "Excellent. Excellent work, Taro. I see that my spies were not wrong. You have taken that sword from Orochimaru."

Sasori's puppet gave some more gravelly chuckles. "For the pleasure you've given me this day, you may pass. But you interest me, so I'm sure I'll be seeing you again."

The large hulk quickly took off in the direction of Wind Country. Taro and his students did not move until Sasori was no longer visible.

"Was that…." Number Two began to ask.

"They say his parents named him the Scorpion of the Bloody Sands at birth," Taro explained. "He's only gotten worse since then."

Taro's students nodded. They had studied the Bingo Books.

"We'll be running the rest of the way. Keep your senses keen. Presume that we're walking into traps and ambushes. We will not stop, if possible, until we're in the Central Office."

Taro didn't wait for an answer; he began to run. Who knows what some crafty bugger like Sasori could do given enough time?

He allowed a narrow stream of questions to populate his mind. How had Sasori heard about the battle yesterday already? Spies, but who? How had Sasori known Taro's route? Taro hadn't taken a straight line path. He cut through certain segments of the forest; he used roads that were little better than cart trails. Had Sasori's spies marked Taro in some way for tracking purposes? This wasn't a coincidence.

Damn. Damn. Damn!

Naruto needed more experience before he wanted to have a target painted on his back.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Three days had passed since Taro had met Sasori on the road. He'd been stuck in meetings, debriefings, and every other kind of administrivia. He had not had a chance to return to his laboratory since returning.

Naruto wanted out of Taro. He hadn't crawled out since vomiting on himself after his…loss of control with the old storekeeper. He only entered or exited his puppet when he was in a safe place.

Finally, Naruto couldn't stand it any longer. He put in for a two-day leave to 'recuperate' from his experiences. Once they realized that battling Orochimaru wasn't an abstract thing or a great story, but something Taro had actually done and likely something Taro needed to heal or recuperate from, the other jounin looked sheepish and granted him the time off.

He made it quickly to his laboratory complex. While he ran, he thought up more questions he had for Kabuto. He needed a more thorough interrogation on Kabuto's work with Sasori. Orochimaru angered Naruto, but Sasori scared him.

He needed to figure out why. A ninja had to be in control of his emotions. Plus, Naruto had hated to feel fear.

Kabuto should also have some progress on a few new, targeted poisons. A puppeteer couldn't rest on his laurels, after all. He knew more of the wider world now; he knew better the kinds of things he needed in his arsenal.

One new poison was supposed to be a protection against the Hyuuga or the Uchiha, people with special eye-based techniques. They wouldn't be able to use their eyes if they'd been dosed with an ocular nerve poison, right?

It was a fairly extreme measure, but Naruto had heard some horrifying things about Uchiha Itachi. Seeing the Hyuuga in person had also reminded Naruto to be more wary of them. After all the Byakugan could likely detect chakra strings, if the wielder knew what he or she was looking for.

Taro passed through the final door protecting his lab. Naruto piled out of his damned puppet. He had been so busy during his training month that he hadn't left then. That was stupid. He had allowed himself to be preoccupied, to not take care of himself.

He needed a shower. And some food that he didn't have to eat from the tube that came down Taro's mouth and throat. He had gotten tired of eating things that had already been chewed by his puppet's jaws first.

The warm water felt great. He was too old to ride around in a puppet like that. It had been fun at the age of eight. Now that he was nearing fifteen, it was less fun.

Taro's identity was almost at the end of its usefulness anyway. Sasori and Orochimaru were both interested in Taro. It was time for Taro to disappear.

How?

Perhaps Naruto would take over the life of an Iwa peasant farmer…or a tea drying warehouse manager. It was good he'd made other identities so long ago. All the better to slip away.

But, what would he tell his students?

The three of them were probably the only people Naruto had ever formed an emotional connection to, leaving aside the Old Man.

He didn't know what he wanted to do. The answer would come in time.

Taro walked down the hallway to where that worm Kabuto was stored. One needed to be wary even around someone who could no longer mold chakra.

"Tell me if the progress you've made is worth enough to keep me feeding you."

It was a familiar ritual to Kabuto. He was little more than a laboratory rat now. He had thought long and hard about swallowing one or another of the various poisons available to him…or attempting to use them on his captor.

He didn't have the right plan. He didn't know what the seals inscribed inside body would really do to him. He knew the threatened consequences…but it wasn't proof positive.

"The serum you requested is finished. It should work, but I don't have anyone to test it on."

"Unlike your former master, Kabuto, I do not test horrible poisons on innocents. I have a…suitable test subject in mind."

Taro accepted the poison and tucked it away safely. "I have need of your memory again, Kabuto. We're going to talk about your former spymaster, Sasori. Tell me how he met you."

"I've told you this before."

"You're going to tell me again, little ninja without chakra. I have information about this Sasori from other sources than you. I wish to know whether you're lying to me. Convince me, Kabuto."

The silver haired prisoner sighed and began.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

After listening to Kabuto for six hours, Naruto felt like he needed another shower. Kabuto was too dangerous a person to allow to live; powerful, amoral, and cruel; a mimic of great capacity; a spy able to infiltrate a village and remain for years. He locked Kabuto away…the ninja needed to be dealt with, but he was still useful for now.

Naruto took a rather special storage scroll into another part of his laboratory, far away from Kabuto. He sealed himself inside a bare stone room. He formed up chakra strings, ready to immobilize Jiraiya once he reappeared.

When Jiraiya awoke, he found he couldn't move…and he was in a horrible stone cellar. There was a guy in the corner…that Grass jounin.

"What the hell? Where am I and why can't I move?"

"I choose not to let you move, Toad Sage. In fact, you won't move again until we've had a…satisfactory conversation."

"I will kick your ass very soon."

Taro nodded. "Yes, in a straight fight you would likely win. But, know this, Jiraiya, I almost never fight fairly. Why be stupid and give up my advantages…."

"How are you doing this? I've never heard of restraining seals that leave the head free but paralyze everything else."

Taro kept a blank expression. Misdirection was a prime tool of a good ninja. Jiraiya filtered everything through his knowledge of seals and flashy techniques. Wouldn't he be surprised if he discovered two thin strands of chakra kept him lying on the cold stone floor?

"Jiraiya, dead last of his Academy class, member of the Legendary Three, holder of the toad contract, mentor to the Fourth Hokage and the only Leaf ninja to ever exceed your own accomplishments, and godfather to that same man's son…"

Here Jiraiya looked confused.

"Godfather and you don't even remember. Fitting, I suppose. I've read many of your confidential reports to the Hokage over the years, Jiraiya. I know you asked for and received updates on the boy…his name was Uzumaki Naruto, I believe."

"How? How did a Grass jounin steal my coded reports?" The man didn't want to believe.

Naruto wouldn't be parting with any secrets this early. He wouldn't relate how he'd stolen the Hokage's private correspondence years ago. "I have better spies than you do."

Jiraiya had no intention of giving anything away.

"Fine. Let me see what I can guess from what I know of you. I'd say you would look in on the little guy once or twice a year…but without ever introducing yourself. Looked rather too much like your dead student, but he was also a reminder of the fox."

"How did you know…" Jiraiya calmed himself a bit. He was giving away too much. The Grass ninja had thrown him on the defensive. He didn't need to say anything, admit anything.

"Why does this matter? Naruto left Hidden Leaf years ago. I haven't seen him in, what, seven years? If you're with the Akatsuki and looking for his current location, I'd be the last person to ask."

Taro looked amused. "Akatsuki, another topic of interest to me. But, let's finish our discussion on Naruto first. Why did you bother to go look at him if you didn't want to help care for him?"

Jiraiya sighed. "Why do you want to know?"

"My reasons are my own, Toad Sage. Answer the question or prepare to starve for the next week. My patience is gone."

That broke Jiraiya. It wasn't like he was being asked about village security; he was giving his personal opinions on a kid who'd been missing for seven years. "You're right. I was a bastard. I saw how he lived and how he was treated. It was too hard to look at a tiny Minato and remember I'd never see him again."

Taro's smile turned to a neutral stare. "I wondered if you would say something like that. I'm not sure I believe it. We'll return to this topic in the future. Why don't we talk about Akatsuki. Let's start with a former member of theirs, Orochimaru."

Jiraiya's eyes went wide. He hadn't confirmed that Orochimaru had once belonged. Whoever this Grass ninja was, he was very well informed.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

One week after returning from Konoha, Taro was summoned before the Grass Ninja Council. Did they want another report? Naruto was back in his laboratory observing and controlling Taro from a distance. He hoped never to need to ride in the belly of a puppet again.

The Council room was unadorned and plain, as befitted an unpretentious nation like Grass. Taro took a seat at a large round table. Over the next ten minutes, the senior jounin of Grass entered and sat down. None of them nodded or smiled at Taro.

This wasn't a 'happy' meeting then.

The current head of the council, Tenuya, bit his upper lip before speaking. "Grass Country's longstanding ninja philosophy is to survive. We stay out of wars. We stay out of alliances. We do our missions and try to make the best possible lives for ourselves. One of our most important techniques is to purposefully not have Kage-level ninja associated with our village. We value general strength, not individual strength. Those who hit Kage-level have…stability problems in our experience. We have expelled quite a few. You, Taro or whatever your name really is, are a surprise to us. You were thought strong…not too strong…until this business with Orochimaru and then Sasori."

"You're expelling me from Grass Country?" Taro kept blinking rapidly. This was certainly a surprise. As he considered it, it was not unwelcome.

Tenuya looked sheepish at such a blunt question. "Yes. You were able to wound, possibly kill an S-class ninja. You were tracked down by another one. If you remained here, you would draw all the wrong kinds of attention on us."

Taro surveyed the faces of the other Jounin on the Council. Naruto was trying to think through the implications of his expulsion. On balance, this was a positive. Taro needed to disappear; this could be the beginning move of a series of events in 'retiring' Taro.

"If I accept this expulsion, I will not be listed in any Grass Bingo Books, correct?"

"Of course. This is an 'amicable' split," Tenuya said. The jounin knew it was dangerous negotiating these types of splits. If this Taro had as much power as it seemed he did, he could level much of this village and the jounin in the room wouldn't be able to do much about it.

"If my students were to voluntarily choose to accompany me when I left the village, would they appear in any Grass Bingo Books?"

Silent looks passed between the jounin on the Council. Finally Tenuya seemed prepared to speak. "We could arrange that…if your genin team wished to leave with you."

"Good. I think they should be promoted to chuunin for their performance in Konoha."

Tenuya nodded. "We had already approved your recommendation, Taro."

"Thank you. I will be gone by tomorrow at dusk."

Taro made to stand and leave.

Tenuya motioned for him to remain seated. "There is another issue, a delicate one. With your…departure, we feel it would be best for the legendary Grass Cutter, which you recovered, to remain here in Grass Country. Can we come to some sort of agreement on this matter?"

Taro had to smile. These guys had balls. First they kick him out, then they ask him to leave Grass Country's most valued ninja treasure behind.

"I think we can," Taro said. "What do you have to offer?"

The Council looked equal parts pleased and annoyed. They would regain the treasure, but it was likely to be expensive, very expensive.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Taro summoned his students to him. When Number Two went to speak, Taro held up his hand in a "hold" signal.

He led his students outside the village walls and then took off at a dead run. He led his students through five large stands of bamboo zigging and weaving all the way for kilometers. He finally slowed as he approached a bolthole he considered expendable. It would be used for this meeting only and then destroyed.

It took fifteen minutes to get underground and into the secure room. It had only a table and four chairs. Taro beckoned them to take chairs.

"Awfully cloak and dagger, Number Four," Number One joked.

"Yes, I apologize. But circumstances have changed for me. I was banished from Grass…."

"What!" Number Two hissed.

"Don't interrupt, please. I said I was banished from Hidden Grass today. I must leave by tomorrow evening." He held up his hand when Number One tried to interrupt. "It's fine. I can accept their reasoning. If I stay then I might drag Orochimaru and Sasori into conflict with us. So it was a mutual decision, up to a point.

"I did negotiate a few concessions. I will not be considered a missing ninja. Also, if any or all of you wished to accompany me, you would not be considered missing ninja. If you wish to remain, then you would be promoted to Chuunin of the Grass. Before we leave this safe space today, I must have a decision from each of you."

Taro gestured. They were now permitted to speak. But his students were silent for more than a minute.

"You are banished because you saved us from Orochimaru?" Number Three asked.

"In part. I am now considered S-rank by the village council…and Grass never permits S-rank ninjas to remain. I am the third to be expelled for this reason in the last decade. The last was a truly vile ninja called Zetsu. He transformed his body into some sort of plant…and he practiced cannibalism. I'm in rather poor company in that regard."

"What do you plan to do?" Number One asked.

"That is the right question to ask. I have quite a few plans, some involving dealing with the Snake Sannin. He would never have come to my attention had he not attacked you. I also need to deal with that red headed boy from Hidden Sand. Beyond that, I can see us developing our own village. During all this I will continue the ninja training we've started and development of more…elusive arts."

Number One looked confused, but it washed off his face. "I want to be a great hunter, killing the worst missing ninjas. We only got to do as much of that because we were with you. I don't know that I can accomplish my goals if I remain behind."

Taro nodded. Number One wanted Taro to promise to help him with his goal. Taro wanted to…he wanted to help sway them, but his students needed to work this out for themselves.

They knew their goals. They needed to determine for themselves how best to achieve them. Whether it was with Taro or not was up to them.

Number Three bit at his lip until it bled. "I always thought I wanted to be Jounin of Grass, like my father and my older brother. But I hate the idea that I would be kicked out if I became too powerful. The compressed steam I prefer to use could eventually become an S-ranked technique, at least I hope it could. I would hate to achieve so much and then be dismissed like so much trash."

Taro looked at Number Two.

She sighed. "I have no reservations about leaving."

"Be sure. I don't know if Grass would take you back if you chose to return," Taro said.

The conversation continued for a few more hours, talking it all out. How they would harass Orochimaru to gain experience; where and when they might set up a village.

After Naruto was confident in their decisions and loyalty, he decided to take a major risk.

"I have one final…detail to show you. I hope it will not change your decision, but you do deserve to know. I am…well, let me just show you."

With that, Naruto kicked open the hatch and fell out. A rather inelegant introduction to the students he'd trained for the last two years.

His students, who were fairly unflappable, looked aghast. Some boy had just climbed out of their sensei. What was going on?

"My name is Naruto. I am a puppeteer, like that bastard Sasori. I have been your sensei these years, operating behind the scenes with my good pal, Taro, there."

The conversation that sparked lasted well into the evening hours.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Number One turned his silver hair black. Number Two's long hair was now braided and fashioned into a bun of the back of her head. Number Three had dumped his green colored clothing for blacks and reds. Each of them had decided to have a ceremonial 'rebirth' after they departed Grass.

Naruto was gratified they had taken his secret in stride. In public he still rode within Taro, but soon that would need to end. Taro had to have a public disaster of some sort. He had the rough outline of a plan, but the details needed sorting.

They moved rapidly south of Grass Country, eventually to end near Wind Country. Naruto really had told Gaara that he would track him down and kill the jinchuuriki if he did not present himself for seal enhancements at a particular date and time. It just so happened that Naruto and his students would arrive only two days before Gaara was due.

When they arrived in River Country, Naruto gave his students a brief tour of the sights on their way to the largest civilian village in the country. He missed living here. It was beautiful, peaceful…save for that horrifying memory of being attacked by Suna ninjas years ago.

Naruto and his students slept that night in tents.

They had a restful day, almost like a vacation. Some of them swam in the river for hours, for fun rather than for training. Taro wandered in the forests he remembered so fondly. They ate a brace of rabbits caught by Number One, roasted over flames with root vegetables found nearby. There was little more satisfying than that.

Sleeping out of doors, faces a bit cold, bodies warm from sleeping bags was a wonderful thing. It was a nice evening for all.

…and then Gaara appeared at five o'clock the next morning, hours before the scheduled meet. How he'd found them, Naruto didn't know.

Taro was up within moments of detecting Gaara's rather unique style of chakra.

He stood outside while he students dressed. It didn't take long for the Sand ninja to traverse the trap field laid by Numbers One and Four. His sand, even now, aided him.

"You know how to defeat Mother," Gaara said, pointing at Taro. "Help me. Mother has been sleeping, but she'll come back eventually."

Taro stared at the jinchuuriki. "It is good you came. Take off your shirt and lay on the grass in the clearing. I will be instructing my students as I work on your seal. Let me explain what will happen to you as a result."

"Yes," Gaara said as he knelt down and waited for freedom to come. He had had time to dwell on his mortality…and it was a glorious time without Mother whispering to him, goading him.

He wanted a different sort of life.

"I will be adding seals to what was already done to you." Taro bent over and examined the structure on Gaara's back. As he'd feared, it was a hatchet job. Weak, perhaps intentionally so, dangerously so.

"Sit up, Gaara. I need to sketch this out on paper first to be sure there are no mistakes. Once a seal like this hits flesh, there's no changing things."

"What do you intend to do? How will it silence Mother?"

The three former chuunin of Grass wondered how Number Four…err, Naruto…could be so calmly speaking with this crazy ninja. They watched and listened and did not interrupt.

"I had intended three new sealing arrays, but I may need four or five now. One will end your bijuu's ability to access your body or mind. Another will force open the demonic chakra possessed by your bijuu and permit you to draw upon it freely. A third seal will assist in purifying the demonic chakra into something you can use without dangerous consequences."

Gaara didn't blink while Taro was speaking. He looked like he understood what Taro said, but it was unnerving talking to someone who didn't react, who didn't act at all human.

"How do you know this?" Gaara asked.

Naruto had access to his father's research on bijuu sealing, but he couldn't admit that. "I have made a study of this…and have access to much research done over the years. Many of the greatest sealing masters study the jinchuuriki seals precisely because they are so complex and touchy. There are few techniques in the world more complex."

Gaara nodded. "Would you have come after me as you threatened?"

"Had you not come here, today? I'd have been in your bedroom by this time tomorrow ending your life, little ninja. Do you have any questions about the seals?"

"When will you be ready?"

Taro pointed to the ground. "Sit and be silent for twenty minutes. I should have this done by then."

The time passed slowly for the nervous students. Gaara didn't seem to move at least during that time. Naruto finished his sketch and checked over the final points. He decided to add a fourth seal, based on an item Naruto carried in his seal. It guaranteed that should Gaara die, then all the chakra would instantly bleed into the earth. A bijuu dispatched in such a way should never be able to reform.

Naruto looked up and saw Gaara staring at him. Naruto did not like the jinchuuriki, but he realized he could just have easily turned into this type of insane, murdering monster. He felt empathy…which was why Gaara was still alive, rather than buried underneath one of Konoha's many forests.

Taro stood up to cross over to where Gaara was sitting when he felt a disturbance in the micropuppets one kilometer away. Someone was approaching quickly from Suna.

"Does anyone know you're here, Gaara?"

The red head shook his head. "They would not wish me to meet with a foreign ninja."

Taro nodded at his students. They prepared for a violent confrontation of some sort.

Less than a minute later, a jounin walked slowly out of the nearby forest. He held his hands up in a non-threatening way. Taro had been awkwardly interrogated by this jounin inside a dive bar in Konoha…he was Gaara's sensei.

"Gaara, you are needed back in Suna."

"Wait, Paku. I am consulting with this ninja on some of my problems."

"Gaara, leave now. Anything you might say to these…people would be a state secret…."

Taro began walking toward the Suna jounin. "Gaara's presence this day was the cost for me not killing him in Konoha. I intend to fix what your people have left incomplete. In less than an hour, Gaara will have no more mental or bodily interconnection with his bijuu."

"You may not do this. I am Acting Kazekage. Do not touch a ninja under my command…."

Gaara looked at his sensei. "Why would you stop this, Paku?"

"I would not have you weaken yourself."

"I will strengthen myself. I will have the power to help my country, rather than terrorize it. Do you not wish this?"

"We have need of your talents, Gaara. Orochimaru betrayed us. He murdered your father, the Kazekage. I would send you against him, to destroy him entirely…."

Gaara breathed slowly for a few moments before he responded. "You wish to assign me to a suicide mission, then. Orochimaru can be beaten, but I have not trained to do this. I do not accept."

"So be it," Paku said, before dispelling. A clone of some sort.

Taro had expected this, but everyone else seemed surprised. The attack came first from the north, a hail of spears. Number Three let loose with a widely dispersed blast of steam. The spears began to melt, their shapes distorted. Instead of cutting through the air like weapons, they hit wind resistance and sunk like stones.

Taro knew precisely where Paku was, but he wanted to give Gaara a test of his hopefully new ideals. What would Gaara do to a former mentor who now stood in his way? He was a murderer…what were his instincts now that his bijuu was temporarily silenced?

Rivers of sand erupted from the nearby river and flew outward in every direction. They were hunting deadly prey.

Taro observed the depth of control Gaara possessed over the sand. It was impressive. His crude approximation, with wind affinity chakra, was perhaps twenty percent of what Gaara could do…it had been good that Gaara and Number Three's battle had been, ahem, interrupted during the Chuunin Exam Finals.

Gaara's sand erupted above the treeline to the west. Number Two ran off to confront this jounin…perhaps her common sense was still lacking? Number One began making the handsigns for one of his stronger genjutsus. Number Three used a hand sign to question Taro. 'Should I kill him?'

'No,' Taro signed back. 'I wish to observe what Gaara will do.'

Number Three hung back, hypervigilant.

A few minutes later there was some kind of explosion near to where Number 2 and Gaara's sand had concentrated their efforts. Then the sand began to contract, returning to the central point where Gaara stood.

Sand was wrapped around Paku like so many thick bandages. Number Two followed behind this sand mummy. Paku was bleeding from a few wounds, signs of some of Number Two's nonlethal attacks.

Gaara's sand brought his sensei to a halt a few week from where he stood. "How did you follow me?"

Paku looked more than a little terrified at being wrapped in Gaara's sand. "You are under constant surveillance, of course."

"I knocked my watchers unconscious before I left," Gaara said with his emotionless voice.

This wasn't going to end well. But the confrontation had given Naruto all the information he needed on Gaara. The red head's immediate instincts, without Mother whispering in his head, hadn't been to slaughter Paku. There was something to work with here.

Taro interceded. Paku could be dealt with later, but Gaara's Mother could choose to return at any time. "If I may, I can put this ninja into a prison of sorts. We can finish up what we came for…and Gaara can cart you back to Suna."

Gaara nodded finally.

Taro scrawled out a quick storage seal and then locked Paku into it. Gaara cradled it for a moment before he dropped it into his sand gourd.

"Now, you, Gaara, may recline over there. This won't take too long," Taro said.

"Good."

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Wave Country was far more prosperous than it had been when Naruto first journeyed here to build a safehouse. He and his team had settled on basing themselves here for their operations against Hidden Sound.

The distance between the two was significant, but it was safer this way.

They left on a Wednesday evening and arrived in Sound Friday at dusk. They planned to remain over the weekend, scouting out bases, trying to find where the actual Hidden Village was located. Kabuto was strangely unhelpful in this regard, as he had never been. Orochimaru had always come to him in order to keep his spy safe.

The new line of work agreed with Number One most of all. He loved the Hunter Nin calling. He had specifically developed his skill sets with this profession in mind. He couldn't have been more perfectly suited for this unless if he had a bloodline trait of some sort related to tracking.

From Friday evening until Monday in the predawn hours, the four ninja explored the flat floodplains of Rice Country. They found and destroyed a few guard posts, and took the heads of whomever they killed. They found one roving party that reminded Naruto of that raiding party with the bone-wielder he'd fought and killed years earlier: this must have been one of Sound's insertion parties journeying to other countries.

Their heads joined the bounty sack.

Not least of all, they took action against the Rice. They poisoned every field they passed. They needed to undermine Orochimaru's strength. If he held back opposition, internal and external, with the threat of his personal power and the promise of no more rice shipments…well, it helped weaken Orochimaru if he had little rice to bargain with.

The guerilla war against Hidden Sound had begun.

During the morning hours of that Monday, the four of them journeyed to Lightning Country and another safehouse. They'd rest up for a few days and raid again, this time cutting a swath through Rice over to Waterfall Country. Then the final leg would take everyone back to Wave for a week or more of recuperation time.

They'd deal with collecting bounties listed in the Bingo Books then. This was how they were funding their little plan.

Instead of fishing for tuna or eel, they went fishing for ninja.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

A/N: That is the last of the chapters I'd written in advance. Future updates will be slower in coming. Glad people are enjoying the story.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

The months after their nearly successful razing of Hidden Leaf were a bad time to belong to the Hidden Sound Village. Those confined to the various hidden facilities within Rice Country or the bases hidden outside the country were safe.

However….

Disappearances among ninja on patrol became uncountable.

Production of rice dived. Terrorists were poisoning every rice field they came across. Orochimaru actually tracked their routes through Rice Country by having his ninja survey which rice fields had been poisoned…and which hadn't.

Any visible structure with a remotely military purpose was torched.

It was impossible to predict when or where the terrorists would strike. Orochimaru was being rapidly driven out of his mind. He had a new body, of course, but it wasn't the one he wanted. That grass ninja had destroyed his last host body.

This guerilla warfare was unlike anything that his sensei would ever approve.

He'd set up ambushes, targets too good to pass up, but these terrorists never bit when Orochimaru was involved. If it was a squad of jounin, the terrorists would kill everyone without leaving any bodies or evidence behind.

How could a ragtag group be this good?

There was no way this was the work of the Hokage. That fool was all about protecting civilians and minimizing collateral damage. In these raids, the main starch for many, if not most, of the Elemental Nations was being cut to shreds. Orochimaru had depended upon the rice…upon using it as a bargaining chip to keep people from invading. He would threaten to destroy the rice…and the starving nations would relent.

But his rice was going, going, gone. Terrorists! Guerillas!

"Sakon," the Snake Sannin yelled. His sole remaining member of the Sound Four walked cautiously into the room.

"My Lord?"

"We need a richer target, something that looks and smells like a trap, but is so tantalizing that these terrorists won't be able to resist."

"There is little left, my Lord, except for our secure facilities…."

Orochimaru sighed. "Fine, if I must sacrifice a building to kill this plague, I must. Order structure seven emptied. Those experiments have been performing poorly. Get our trapping experts in. We know that they like to destroy structures, so we'll counterbomb them. Anyone who sets foot in there will not be coming out again."

Sakon nodded. "It will be as you command, my Lord."

Orochimaru sat in a concrete bunker all by himself. He had a lot to consider.

The terrorists, the Hidden Leaf mocking him by not being a burned ruin…but then also the last Uchiha.

Orochimaru would need a new body soon and his present vessel was less than ideal because that stupid Grass ninja forced an early switch on him. He had almost three years before he could make the leap, but the Uchiha should be ready for recruitment now. The boy would have his uses, perhaps as a recruiting tool. Orochimaru needed more warm bodies for his ninja forces…maybe this Sasuke would be good for something beside his eyes.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Taro sat in the small cell where he'd relocated Kabuto. Jiraiya and a few other acquisitions were held in other boltholes. Naruto didn't have a safe haven like Grass Country any longer.

Taro had sat in the cell with Kabuto for nearly an hour before speaking. It unnerved the former ninja. "Orochimaru is taking heavy losses, Kabuto. What will he do?"

The spy's information was quite out of date, but the young ninja had spent a good deal of time working with Sasori and Orochimaru. He had a decent conception of what both ninja were likely to do. Taro had spent many hours posing hypotheticals to Kabuto.

"He will strike when you least expect." Kabuto's voice was hoarse from disuse.

Taro's lips pursed. "Me and my team always expect him to strike. Could you be more helpful?"

"He will attempt to lure you into complacency. You'll blow through something and he'll just pop out and slaughter you. That's what he does best."

Taro tapped his fingers on the stone floor. "Traps rely on the trapped party being unaware of them. How will Orochimaru lead wary prey into a trap?"

"Temptation. It's his hallmark. Some he tempts with offers of power; others he tempts with…more unusual offerings. You…you who would destroy him given the chance…I believe he will try to tempt you with himself or one of his chief lieutenants. He'll spread the word that he'll be in such and such a place…and he will. But your assassination attempt will fail – and his won't."

Taro laughed. "You'd best hope he fails, little spy. If I die, then it will take you two or three weeks to starve to death in here. You'll never leave this place unless I personally take you out."

Kabuto said nothing. Taro often taunted him like this.

In truth, it terrified Kabuto whenever his captor left…and whenever he returned. He was powerless now and this psychological torture was beginning to have its effect. Kabuto had been imprisoned for months now. Taro never beat him or threatened violence. He didn't need to.

"Kabuto, you've told me that Hidden Sound was conceived of as a series of hardened underground bunkers. Any ideas as to where Orochimaru might hide them?"

The silver-haired former ninja shook his head. "I was not told precisely in case I was captured. The old snake is paranoid, but for good reason."

That made sense. "Orochimaru is publicly a ninja-village leader in Rice Country. What percentage of Hidden Sound do you think he based elsewhere?"

Kabuto smiled. "If I were a betting man, I'd say that Rice Country holds just a bit more than half of whatever Orochimaru built."

Taro nodded. He, too, assumed Orochimaru had major bases in other countries. "Did you ever learn anything about the rotation schedule?"

"Rotation?"

"Between the facilities."

"Ah, yes. I remember. Orochimaru did once explain that he rarely spent more than two nights in the same place before moving on. I doubt he forced all of his subordinates to follow the same rules. No, I suspect that most of the staff stays for long periods at a single facility, especially those working on Orochimaru's 'experiments.' Too difficult to pack them up."

"So, it would be hard to just follow a single ninja or a group of them from facility to facility?"

"It might have been easier prior to the invasion of Hidden Leaf, but now…now Orochimaru is in full paranoia."

Many kilometers away in a different safehouse, Naruto manipulated his Taro puppet and considered his options. Orochimaru had to go.

But how…that was the question, how?

Kabuto was growing less and less useful as he remained apart from his former master. It sounded cold, but Naruto was trying to think of another use for the former ninja. Something appropriate and useful.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Taro led a battle group of Numbers One, Two, and Three, plus eight more puppets controlled by Naruto from a remote location.

The whole crew been extremely careful for the last two raids…and it saved their necks.

Orochimaru had been waiting for the raiders at two different locations they'd tried to attack. The raiders had advanced warning each time and escaped without incident. (The chakra strings connecting Naruto to his puppets were far more sensitive to foreign chakra than most ninja were. Especially to a chakra that felt as foul as Orochimaru's did.)

Tonight, however, Taro and the entire group were returning to attack an installation they'd tried to hit once before. Naruto didn't feel any of Orochimaru's nasty chakra through his chakra strings.

The team kept advancing.

It was obviously a trap, but the question was…was the trap powered up and waiting for them this time?

The entire party had brought the strongest long-range weapons they had in their arsenals. With any luck, they could lob in a devastating attack and be gone within forty-five seconds.

If this facility weren't so potentially dangerous, Naruto would prefer to send in spies to see if Orochimaru had left any clues to the locations of his other facilities. Given the circumstances that was a suicide mission. Naruto couldn't risk it.

Taro made the handsignals to get into position. The attack began as expected.

Taro and his students hung back while the other puppets went to a mid-range position. They launched the first volley of mortar rounds. Number Three used a wide-area steam attack to detonate the mortars above the structure. The blast and its shockwave caved in the hardened structure's roof. The other munitions would be simpler to get inside now.

As Numbers One and Two prepared to launch a few volleys of ever-burning fluid into the gaping roof holes, Naruto felt the briefest presence of foreign chakra. He prompted Taro to withdraw everyone, but the attack was already on them.

Orochimaru…who must have been suppressing his chakra for a good long while…led the attack on the mid-range attackers, all of them puppets. Three of the eight were cleaved in half before Naruto could respond. A few of the others were on fire. Naruto made the decision to sacrifice these puppets in order to hide the fact that they were puppets.

On another part of the field, Taro and his students were fending off lesser ninja, but the numbers game was against them. They were four slightly surprised ninja against perhaps twenty ninja who had patiently prepared this ambush.

A rain of weapons erupted from behind them. Number Three tried to gust them away…or melt them. It mostly worked. Taro had to bat one away. Number Two ducked and then twisted.

She ran off to where the fiercest barrage of attacks came from. Taro bounded off to his left. Numbers One and Three turned and began attacking the center of the field. Screams and yells told them they were hitting ninja, hitting but perhaps not disabling or killing.

Naruto, back in his safehouse, knew he didn't have time to be angry at this turn of events. He knew…he absolutely knew that Orochimaru was going to try something like this. He'd deferred this attack quite a few times, but Orochimaru had adjusted enough to lure them in.

He just needed to keep his students safe. Then he could think about new tactics.

Back on the field of battle, Number Two was engaged with two opposing ninja. One threw around electricity as if it were free. The other seemed to twist and twirl as if his bones were made from rubber. They were likely the most difficult opponents she'd ever faced alone.

She turned to her Cursed Touch technique, yet another perversion of medical procedure. She managed to evade the electricity user's attack. Her fist slammed into her enemy's shoulder. Within a second, the skin blackened and began to wither. The muscle rotted before her eyes. The bone weakened and turned to dust.

That ninja dropped to the ground as part of his body died.

The rubber ninja did not react to his colleague's pain. Rather, he intensified his attacks on Number Two.

She had never seen someone move the way he did. Never.

She aimed for his head and got air. She aimed for the center of his torso and the man curved away. She tried technique after technique. The ninja kept avoiding everything.

Down where Orochimaru was attacking, the tide was turning against the ambushers. Naruto used his chakra strings to set these puppets into a suicide move. Only three were still at all mobile, but it was enough. The others still had seals inside them that could aid in this attack.

Two of the least damaged puppets jumped and grabbed at Orochimaru's 'guards.' The puppet missing an arm locked his remaining arm around the ninja's leg. The puppet that had been heavily burned was able to get both arms around another ninja.

Miles away, Naruto twitched his finger. Orochimaru's body guards went up in a massive explosion. All ten of the puppets' seals detonated. Orochimaru was flung into the air, but managed to turn and right his body. He stuck to a tree with his feet rather than slamming into it.

It took the Snake Sannin a moment to feel the pain. Then he saw that his left arm was on fire. He had a half melted kunai stuck in his leg. He did a few quick jutsu, shook his head, and wondered what kind of ninja would do that…commit suicide like that.

These terrorists got more and more interesting and irritating every time Orochimaru looked into them.

In another part of the battle, Number Two dodged again as the rubber ninja went on the offensive. He had five kunai in his hand and was jabbing everywhere at the same time.

Number Two leapt back. The rubber ninja was gone…she pivoted to her left…and that's when she felt it. A kunai sunk into her stomach. The pain…was worse than anything she'd ever felt before. As she began to fall backwards, she slashed out with her Cursed Touch and caught an unsuspecting rubber ninja on each leg. Number Two saw the rapid spread of blood leaking everywhere, all over the ground.

Her blood.

But she had to smile. Whatever pain she felt right now was a tenth of what the other guy was feeling. A bleeding stomach, perforated intestines, a few nicked minor arteries.

Her sensei would save her…or she would die. It was best to go out in battle. It was a glorious death, should Kami forsake her.

In the now stilled part of the battle field, Number Three and Taro caught up with Number One after their attackers were incapacitated.

"Where's Number Two?" Taro asked.

Number One nodded off to a section of the battle field. Taro jumped his way through the dense vegetation. He saw his bleeding student a few moments.

Miles away, Naruto positively howled in anger. He wanted to protect his students, to make them strong. He did not want them to die in such a way.

Taro knelt down and scooped up Number Two. She wasn't conscious. Taro hopped away. Numbers One and Three looked surprised at seeing Two so hurt.

Normally she was the one who patched up their minor problems.

Taro set her down and began trying to fix the wound, to see if he could stop the blood. To see if he could keep his student alive.

A minute later, she was stabilized as well as could be managed. The three healthy ninja leapt out of their almost fatal attack site.

No one spoke. They were all moving at top speed. The nearest safe house was a considerable distance away.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Tamayana Kara awoke once. Everything hurt. She tried to open her eyes, but she couldn't. She tried again…and this time whatever muck held them shut gave way.

She wasn't outside anymore. She didn't see that horrible rubber ninja.

Her teammates or her sensei must have come for her.

She tried to turn her head, but that hurt, too. What had happened to her that everything hurt?

Then she felt it. Her skin was on fire, her stomach felt like it was going to burst. Oh Kami. Number Two groaned in pain.

Then Taro…err, Number Four came into view. And Naruto, the blonde boy who was so handsome, so strong. Her sensei was here in person and was operating his puppet at the same time. She felt grateful…and nervous that so much help was necessary for her.

They were doing something to her. Number Three was at her feet. Number One was holding down her head. The pain, it hurt worse. Didn't any of them learn any medical jutsu? It felt like they were tearing her apart.

Her eyes fixed on Naruto. He was looking at her. He was terrified. She kept staring up at him…hoping…praying.

As the blackness swirled at the edge of her field of vision, she could only think of Naruto.

She had gone from being an idiot student to a powerful ninja because of him. She had left her home and her family behind without a thought because he asked it. She had walked and run and swam from one end of the Elemental Countries because he asked it.

If she survived this, if she lived, she would tell her sensei how she felt about him. She had counted on him to save her…and he did. He was always there, always strong, always a pillar in her heart.

She swore to herself. 'Let me live so that I can grow stronger for my sensei, so that I can be what he needs from me.'

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Naruto walked over to the bed where his student was recuperating. He had felt so guilty about her injuries that he set her up, after field triage, in the safehouse he currently inhabited.

It had been three days. She looked better and was drinking fluids. But she was still awfully pale.

This whole thing was a vivid reminder of one of the main benefits of serving a ninja village: proper medical services.

Everything had been cobbled together. She had nearly died twice because Naruto and his team didn't know what they were doing…and didn't have basic supplies. Her bandages were stolen from a clinic in the nearby village. The antibiotics were stolen from a veterinarian. The jutsu used to repair some of the damage had also been stolen, much earlier, from Hidden Leaf.

It was sheer audacity that Number Two was still alive. She was their primary healer. Naruto only had rudimentary healing skills…and Number Three was scarcely any better. Number One knew as much as any civilian hunter out in the woods.

Naruto sat on a stool and looked at the girl's easy breathing. She was finally sleeping well.

They'd kept infection out, even though her intestines had been cut. Number Two was very lucky, foolhardy but very lucky.

Naruto looked over the saline drip. It would need to be changed within the hour. He made to stand up when a hand snaked out and grasped his.

"You're awake," Naruto said.

"I was tired of sleeping," Number Two said.

"Your body needs the time and energy to heal."

"Stop lecturing. I know you've never taken to the healing arts."

Naruto smiled. "True enough. But I've had my fair share of injuries. Some heal slowly…some never heal at all." His students still didn't know about his main weakness, his missing leg. That Naruto would keep hidden for as long as possible.

"I'll be good as new, Nar…err, Number Four."

Naruto was confused for a moment. His student had known his true name for some time now, but she'd never used that name. If she addressed him by name, she said, 'Taro.'

"Is there anything I can get you? I have several jutsu scrolls you've never seen before. I won't allow you to practice them, but you can read them…."

Number Two smiled. "That sounds nice. My brain feels like it's rotting."

Naruto stood up and walked into his sleeping quarters. He kept a stash of scrolls there. It took just a few minutes to find a few interesting scrolls. Naruto walked back to the room where his student was staying.

"Here you are."

"Thank you. Would you do me another favor, Number Two?"

Naruto shrugged. "Sure. What can I do?"

"Call me Mokuren, sensei."

That took Naruto back. It wasn't her true name. The jounin council back in Grass had informed Naruto of the name of each of his students. But he had never used them…and he didn't know what this new name meant. She wasn't delicate like the flower name she had just adopted. She was stronger than the thickest tree in the forest.

"I will call you Number Two."

"Please sensei. Call me Mokuren."

Naruto leaned away from his student. Something was going on here. Something odd, something off….

He was caught off guard when Number Two's hand reached out and snagged Naruto's hand. She had his hand to her lips before he could react.

It felt strange. Warm, wet.

The lips on his hand were the first time he'd been touched by another human…in a long, long time. Doctors teaching him to use his prosthesis in Hidden Leaf? That Suna ninja who had kicked Naruto out of an early model Taro puppet?

Years.

Naruto blinked twice, three times. Then he remembered the lips, the aggressive lips, on his hand. He snatched his hand back.

"What are you doing?"

"Sensei. Sensei, we're alone."

"Number Two, I don't know what you want…."

"I want you, Naruto. I thought you were so cool and powerful when I just saw your Taro puppet, I'd have followed you anywhere. I owe you so much. I admired and respected you, but you're my age. You're beautiful. I don't just have to admire you, sensei. I want you, Naruto. I want to be yours…."

Naruto's brain almost shut down at that declaration.

No one had ever claimed to love him, to want him. Naruto didn't know what to do. He was so advanced as a ninja, but his mind had never turned to girls. He thought of himself as broken, as damaged.

This didn't make any sense.

"I don't…understand, Number Two."

She sat up in bed. Naruto wanted to push her back down so she wouldn't injure her stitches…and then he thought again. He wanted to get away from this…girl who was causing his head so much pain. He didn't understand. It didn't make sense.

She reached out to grab his hand again.

"Please, sit back down. You're going to reinjure yourself, Number Two."

"No. Let me explain. My fondness for you, my admiration – it turned to love, Naruto. Now, you're nursing me back to health. I…I can't imagine anything more romantic."

Naruto stood up and headed for the door. "I'll be back in an hour. Read your scrolls, Number Two. We shall not speak of this…this again."

He was gone before Number Two could say anything.

She spent the next hour sobbing.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Time passed slowly in Naruto's current stronghold. Numbers One and Three didn't stay long before fleeing back out into the field. They could feel the tension…even if they didn't understand it.

Naruto took to climbing inside his Taro puppet and leaving on missions with Numbers One and Three. He left a Shadow Clone behind to tend to Number Two.

No one said anything…but it all unraveled. Years of working together was gone. The comfort of being a team was disrupted. They were back to their raw genin days.

Attacks against Rice Country targets slowed to a halt. Naruto's plan to fully blood his students…and himself…slowed. Before he could truly become strong as he'd promised to do, he needed to perfect his present skills.

But if he couldn't keep his students safe…if he couldn't fulfill his obligations to them…if he couldn't even stand to be touched, then what value was power?

It was a most uncomfortable month.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Naruto managed to resume their raiding five weeks after Number Two had been injured.

His female student refused to look at Naruto or the Taro puppet. They began the raid, but no one was really into it. The magic was gone.

Indeed, in the thirteen hours they traveled between Wave and Lightning, the only highlight was running into some kind of caravan of Sound ninjas carting the last Uchiha, Sasuke, off to meet with Orochimaru.

Taro stayed his team while he deployed a special series of micropuppets, the ones that carried a special poison developed by Kabuto. Here, finally, was a worthy test subject. An Uchiha being willingly led away from Hidden Leaf.

Sasuke didn't seem to notice the pain of a few micropuppets injecting him with a small dose of an optic nerve poison.

Taro gestured for his team to attack, but he singled Sasuke out for safe passage. The poison took time to take hold. Naruto wanted to know the true effects. Sasuke would live today; who knew what tomorrow had in store for him?

Taro signaled. The brutal attack rained down on the Sound ninja.

Number Two held nothing back. She used every horrifying, lethal type of medical perversion she could think of. Arms exploded; hearts and lungs liquefied; gashes self-cauterized themselves across torsos.

Number Three showed just why he would eventually be classed an S-rank ninja…within a few years his repertoire would be well known and feared. Skin burned; ninjas were cut in half from a great distance; steam batted powerful ninjas around like they were toy ships in a storm.

Number One preferred to demonstrate his sword and dagger skills on a night like this one. He hadn't been on the field long enough to prepare any significant traps, but he had a few quick surprises ready. He was about to test out some new types of distraction traps when two wounded ninjas managed to grab Sasuke and flee the field.

Taro signaled that they wouldn't be pursuing. He had a test to run, after all. He wanted to see the effects of the new poison on the Sharingan.

Hours later the group arrived at the safe house in Lightning Country.

Naruto crawled out of Taro. He expected to have to explain about his order concerning the Uchiha.

Instead, Number Two dropped a bombshell. The Uchiha was the last of their concern. "This was my last mission, sensei. I believe I have learned everything you have to teach me."

Her voice was strained and brittle.

"No, Number Two. I am sure there is more that all of us can help you with…."

"No," Number Two said more firmly. "I have learned everything that I want to from you. I need to map my own course now."

Numbers One and Three were surprisingly quiet. They had both wondered what had happened between Numbers Two and Four…but whatever it was seemed to be playing itself out now.

The crumbling of their team was now complete.

"Is there anything I can do," Naruto asked, "to change your mind?"

Number Two bit her lip and shook her head. "I made myself clear to you. It's too hard to be here now…."

Naruto looked sad, but he nodded. As much as he wanted Number Two to remain, he couldn't countenance what she seemed to want from him. If this was what she needed, then Naruto had to let her go. "What are your plans, Number Two?"

"I will return and visit my parents for a time. Beyond that, I do not know. I have no interest in returning to serve Grass. They were wrong then to expel you; they remain wrong now."

Number One stepped over to whisper to Number Two. Number Three looked upset, but he let the others figure it out.

"Then go with my blessing, my dear student. This will likely be a complete severing of ties, then. With your departure, I will have to destroy the safehouses you know about for our continued security…."

"I know, sensei. I would never speak of you, but it is sensible in any case…."

"Thank you, Number Two. More than setting up new boltholes, other things will have to change soon. This life I live will soon be gone, Number Two. Once you leave, I don't know that we'll ever run into each other again."

"That's alright. It's too hard staying here, ignoring reality. You helped to make me strong…and for that I am thankful. But you broke my heart, sensei. I cannot just overlook that. I have to find my own path now."

Twenty minutes later, after saying goodbye to her teammates but not hugging or touching her former sensei, Number Two left the safehouse.

Naruto suspected and feared that he would never see his student again. The truth would be far worse.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

A/N: This is my long planned exploration of Number Two. Those who complained about not knowing the student's names now have one of them.

Most of the S-ranked ninja featured in Naruto seem to have psychiatric dysfunctions. Naruto, growing up the way he did and always hiding inside puppets, is just as broken as Haku or Sasori. His power, like all power, comes at a severe cost. He seems willing to pay it, even if all the people around him are not.

More crumbling to come. The golden age is over.


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

Tamayana Kara let herself discretely into her parents' home in Grass Country. She didn't want anyone to know she was back.

"Mom?"

There was a noise from the upstairs. Kara ghosted upstairs.

Her mother was cleaning the floor. "Kara? What are you doing here? I thought you were off training…."

Kara's mother was a civilian. She didn't understand the things Kara explained. Had she been a ninja, seeing her daughter like this would have been alarming.

"I'm fine, mom. I decided to part ways with my sensei."

"Oh. He didn't try to take advantage of you, did he?"

A bitter laugh erupted from Kara's body. "No, no, nothing like that."

"Okay. I'm making my special ramen tonight. Would you like to stay?"

"Yes, mom. I'd like to stay. May I remain here for a few days?"

Kara's mother smiled. "Yes. I would love that."

"Where's dad?"

"Trying to trade our old equipment for some better implements."

Kara's family had been farming for generations. Daikon, sweet potato, onion, eggplant, and a variety of other vegetables. The conditions weren't great for growing rice here.

The pair began talking about safe topics. Kara's mom didn't understand enough to ask about ninja topics…and, for the time being, Kara didn't care to speak about her work. It was nice to just have a simple conversation, to remember simpler times.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

The unusual ninja who looked more like a plant than a person grinned when he performed a routine check on the Tamayana farm. The girl was eating dinner with an older woman and man, the parents.

Sasori had asked Zetsu to conduct surveillance on a number of locations in and around Grass Country.

This was the first hit.

Sasori needed to know immediately. He had most urgent questions for this girl. Perhaps the other students were home on leave, too? Zetsu had a long night ahead of him.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Number One spent less and less time around Naruto and Number Three. It seemed that Number Two had been the glue that held everything together.

Alternately, Number Three became more focused in his training.

Naruto tried spending more time with his remaining students…time spent interacting with them directly, not through Taro or another puppet. It felt strange, unworldly to be in the room with someone who wasn't a subject for interrogation.

Everything felt so wrong now.

He had an emptiness in his chest. Naruto found he actually missed his student. But he didn't know what to do….

….so he threw himself into training. He upped his practice schedule; he spent an hour a day practicing his taijutsu while he controlled ten puppets battling each other. He refined and improved his puppetry innovations. He got sharper, faster, better.

Still, it hurt.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

The ghostly images of a number of people hung in the air. Sasori was alone in his safehouse. He had left that pest Deidara elsewhere.

"Leader, I have news."

"Enlighten us, Sasori."

"It will be of interest to Itachi and Kisame. The supposed Grass jounin I've been tracking for some time…is actually our missing Kyuubi container."

That got the ghostly images moving and talking. Nothing had been heard of Uzumaki Naruto for some time…not even by Itachi who was formerly an ANBU captain in Hidden Leaf.

"Quiet," the Leader commanded. "Very tantalizing, Sasori. Could you provide us with some more details?"

"Gladly. I made the…acquaintance of a young woman who was one of this jounin's students. Our arrangement together provided me with some interesting facts, although the man's location is not one of them…."

"Stop blathering," Kisame said. "Spit it out. How can this jounin who knocked around Orochimaru be the Kyuubi container?"

Sasori smiled. "Naruto is a puppeteer, of course. He can appear in any guise he wishes. Apparently the puppets he makes are good enough to pass as human…or he independently recreated my human puppet technique."

"A puppeteer," Leader said. "That is disturbing. It would indicate he has superb chakra control, if nothing else in ninja skills. I was under the impression, Itachi, that the boy was reviled in his village. Sasori, did this information source know who trained him?"

"She did not. Indeed, she did not know her 'sensei' was a teenager until a few months ago. He's cagey, this boy of ours. It was only sheer good luck we have this much information. Had he not confronted Orochimaru – or had my spy network been less effective – we might never have known this…."

"Enough," Itachi said. "I'll pat your back all you wish the next time I see you. For now, tell me where I can find this puppeteer. What does he look like? What are his vulnerabilities?"

Sasori laughed. "Nervous, eh, Itachi? A few of your greatest techniques won't work against a puppet. No Tsukiyomi, eh?"

"Sasori," Leader warned. "Do not taunt."

"My…source told me that Naruto was destroying all the safehouses she knew about. They ranged throughout the Elemental Countries."

"What of his techniques?" Kisame asked.

"He's cagey on that. The student could only talk of what the puppets could do. The main puppet is quite a weapons user. But the things she described are not enough to drive off and then severely wound someone like Orochimaru. He's obviously hidden his true power from even his students…."

Itachi nodded. "It sounds like this one will be a challenge. Good, I like a strong ninja. I need to find a true measure of my strength. Perhaps this boy will provide it."

The Leader seemed less pleased. "Somehow the Nine Tails has learned a powerful, hidden art. We don't know how…or precisely what he does. It's strong enough to inconvenience our old colleague. The only image we have of him is of his puppet…and that blasted thing can be abandoned at any time. What are you holding back, Sasori?"

"This former Grass jounin has been the one harassing and devastating Orochimaru…and I doubt he'll be satisfied until Orochimaru is dead."

Leader nodded. "Good. This Naruto will have to pass through Rice Country with some frequency. Kisame and Itachi, you will go and greet our missing jinchuuriki. Greet him gently. Sasori, be sure your acquaintance is appropriately…thanked for her assistance."

"Already done, my Leader."

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Naruto was sure he was about to lose Number One.

He decided to confront the issue after they finished this raid. Their efforts were less and less successful. Hidden Sound was just too well…hidden. But Number Three had suggested an interesting new tactic.

"They're called Hidden Sound, right? Well, why don't we see if we can find them with sound," he'd asked.

This was their first test of that interesting question.

Naruto had worked up an Earth Style technique to send sound waves at high speed through stone and earth. Upon encountering a gap, whether a small rabbit warren or an underground building, the sound reverberated violently causing the space to collapse. In theory.

Naruto and his team should be able to see the earth bulge and then sink into the ground. It was an interesting concept…but who knew if it would work?

The group stopped in four densely packed areas of vegetation, all places easy to conceal an underground entrance. The jutsu turned up nothing the first time and only a few small explosions the second and third times…explosions far too small to be installations.

The fourth place they stopped revealed something else. A stand of vegetation erupted in a cloud of dust. Direct hit!

Within seconds, Naruto (inside Taro) and his two remaining students moved closer to the detonation site, but they all took up different untouched sections. Each of them performed the jutsu again. After moving another time and using the jutsu again, they had a good sense of the size of the facility that they had just discovered.

"Number Three, why don't you see how well your steam can clean out a nest of cockroaches?"

"My pleasure, Number Four."

The powerful ninja ran toward the nearest edge of the facility and began blowing out a perilously long stream of steam. It pushed straight down. Wisps of steam erupted from other damaged parts of the facility.

As he turned red in the face and had sweat pouring off his face, Number Three stopped his attack. Whatever had been inside the structure was now thoroughly cooked.

Number Three looked pleased with himself, but Number One looked confused.

Naruto ended the experiment then. He needed to talk with Number One in a safe place. He didn't care to lose another person he had come to care about.

As dawn lit the sky, the team arrived in the far south of Fire Country. The bolthole was new, one of a half dozen recently carved out to replace the ones abandoned after Number Two's departure.

Number Three went to eat a quick meal and find a dark corner to sleep in. Naruto clambered out of Taro and then tagged Number One. "May I speak with you?"

"Sure thing, Number Four."

Naruto gestured to a pair of chairs. He poured himself a glass of water and offered another to his student. They both drank in silence before Naruto could form the questions he wanted to ask.

"I wonder if you are learning what you need to from me, from this association."

Number One shrugged.

"I remember that you wish to become a hunter nin. From what you've said of your family, I suppose you wish to honor their memory doing this?"

That earned Naruto a sharp nod. "Yes. A band of thugs, led by a middling missing ninja from Hidden Cloud, killed my parents. Yes, I do this to avenge them. These raids seemed like good training at first, but now. Now, we're hunting for a handful of needles in a haystack the size of a small country. I believe my growth has…leveled off."

"I see. Is there anything I can do to help you?"

Number One sucked in breath and sighed. "I don't know. I don't think so."

"Are you thinking of moving on?"

Number One nodded.

"You liked her, didn't you?"

Number One tried to look surprised. "Who?"

He didn't play clueless very well.

"It doesn't matter," Naruto said. "I promised to help you. I stand by that promise, Number One."

"Thank you. I know that…but this isn't the same thing any more. I never thought how much I liked my team. The others in my Academy class just moaned and groaned about their teammates. I graduated at the bottom of the rankings and didn't have any room to bitch. I was from civilian stock; I had no reason to expect to become a ninja. But then we had something…magical, the four of us. With Number Two, I could almost read her mind in a combat situation."

Naruto smiled. "Until I took you as my students, I had never thought about teamwork. But it amazed me every day what you three, together, could achieve. Please let me know what I can do. If I need to let you go, then tell me that."

"I need to leave, sensei."

"Then you may go. Rest up as long as you need. If Number Three remains, then we will have to set up new safehouses again."

"I am sorry to cause you the disruption…."

Naruto waved away the apology. "Never apologize for trying to achieve your dreams, my student. If you think of anything I can do to help before you leave, please let me know."

Number One wouldn't meet Naruto's eyes. He just nodded, finished off his water, and grabbed a sleeping bag.

Naruto did not sleep well that night. He feared for Number One. Hunter nins, especially those driven by a sense of vengeance, didn't usually last that long working solo.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Naruto rode inside his Taro puppet, walking behind Number Three. They were getting in position to run another series of nighttime raids against Hidden Sound.

They had a map and were carefully checking Hidden Sound and marking off the grids they'd touched. So far they'd uncovered and destroyed six more underground bunkers. The end was drawing near for Orochimaru.

His ninja were decimated. His food was destroyed. His economic base was gutted. Unpaid armies don't fight after all.

Now his hardened facilities were falling one by one.

The Snake Sannin would have to return to the field to confront Naruto…and this time, the Snake Sannin wouldn't be leaving alive.

Number Three was moving at a good clip…until he suddenly stopped. He then leapt off into the vegetation. He screamed.

Naruto looked…there was something over there. Something rather close to a former bolthole Naruto had used. It looked like a stunted tree or something.

Taro closed the distance, but Naruto almost lost control of his puppet when he understood what he was looking at.

"This cannot go unpunished, Number Four." Number Three's anger had already morphed into resolve.

Naruto looked at the horrible thing. It wasn't a stunted tree at all.

It was a pole planted in the ground. A bleached…skull…mounted on top. There was a horrible red scorpion carved or burnt into the forehead.

Even though the face was gone, eaten by birds or insects, Naruto knew it had to be Number Two. The clothing at the base of the pole matched what his student liked to wear.

In that moment of realization….

Number Two was dead.

….Naruto's fear of Akasuna no Sasori disappeared. The Scorpion was dead. He just didn't know it yet


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

Naruto's mind was constantly on Sasori, but he couldn't leave a project unfinished. Orochimaru's main bases were in ruins…and the Snake Sannin was fighting a desperate war of attrition. Sasori needed to die…but Naruto wouldn't leave Orochimaru alive.

Best to take care of one problem before moving onto another.

The real problem was that Naruto didn't know how to kill Sasori. There were rumors that the ninja wasn't quite human any longer.

He also didn't know where to find the Suna puppeteer. It would not be an easy task all around.

The Taro puppet and Number Three had personally examined most of Rice Country…and the number of remaining possibilities for Orochimaru's remaining bunkers was quite small. The man would not want to give up his base of operations without a fight…and he was arrogant enough to believe that no one could defeat him on his home turf.

It took only three more raids before the two ninja got an irate Orochimaru to attack them.

Seven massive snakes popped out of nowhere. On top of the largest one Orochimaru and a guard stood and began lobbing devastating techniques down against Taro and Number Three.

"You will die this evening, you horrible thugs," Orochimaru screamed. "I don't know how or why you've survived as long as you have, but no one can escape me forever."

The snapping mouths of the snakes were everywhere it seemed. Their bodies twisted and contracted over the whole field of battle.

Minutes passed. The enemies hadn't been retaliating. Indeed, one enemy looked to be crushed inside of Manda's massive coils.

The other shinobi was gone, crushed perhaps under a summon.

It felt like a hollow victory to Orochimaru. These two had harassed and destroyed so much of his force and his infrastructure. To have a simple conclusion…just felt wrong.

Orochimaru turned to look as three of the massive summons simultaneously screamed out in terror and then were forced back to the summon realm.

A second later, Manda himself squealed in pain and anger before he turned into a mere cloud of smoke. Orochimaru twisted and pivoted his body so he landed in a tree. Sakon landed badly…and was hurt.

"Show yourselves, you low born beasts," the Snake Sannin bellowed. He was normally calm…but nothing had ever destroyed his boss summon without Orochimaru having at least an inkling of what was happening.

He gathered his breath in time to see the remaining summons banished back to their native realm.

What kind of technique could be used remotely to banish summons? Orochimaru, master of three thousand jutsu, did not have the first clue. Indeed, the theory of summoning suggested that there were only three ways to banish a summon: for the summon itself to will it, for the summoner to will it, or for the summon to use up its gifted chakra through vigorous combat or monstrous wounds.

Orochimaru hadn't sent them back. Manda certainly hadn't willed himself back. So…there was something about the chakra…or else the summoning theory wasn't quite right.

Orochimaru watched as Sakon was attacked. The taller ninja didn't use any kind of chakra. Indeed, Orochimaru couldn't feel the ninja's presence or get an accurate gauge of how powerful he might be. One of the punches somehow drew blood. That was when Sakon began to scream. His skin…seemed to balloon up and then melt off him. The heat necessary to accomplish this had instantly destroyed the ninja's capacity to scream.

The ninja used poisoned blades or some other unusual technique.

The Snake Sannin began to feel a bit nervous. He couldn't even detect where his opponents were. Nor did he know of any poison or other type of technique that had the same effects as what killed Sakon.

"If it's to be to the death, let us fight like ninja."

A whisper in Orochimaru's ear came before he could react. "Acceptable." Then the Snake Sannin knew no more. A kunai severed the ninja's spinal column.

Two battered…ninja…just stood over the pair of rapidly cooling corpses. They said nothing and did nothing.

For this raid, Naruto had gone back to old model puppets…one designed to look like Taro and another to resemble Number Three.

Orochimaru had fallen to a puppet and he hadn't even known it.

Since neither puppet had a chakra network, Orochimaru couldn't sense them. They were made entirely from wood…and the only chakra they had access to were tiny filaments, the chakra strings Naruto used to control them.

It was hardly sporting…but the Snake Sannin had worn the skin of other ninjas he'd killed in order to infiltrate and attack the Hidden Leaf. Taro and Number Three played by Orochimaru's rules…brutal and vicious, without mercy.

Number Three and the real Taro took almost fifteen minutes to arrive on the scene. They left their hiding spot a few miles away only after Orochimaru was already dead. It wasn't terribly sporting, but they'd hung back in one of the safe areas they'd already investigated and cleared. Orochimaru couldn't get in a lucky killing blow if he wasn't fighting real ninja.

Once he arrived, Number Three used one of his steam techniques to obliterate the Snake Sannin's body. Taro used fire to destroy the dead bodyguard.

"It seems too easy," Number Three said.

"No. It was not easy to drive Orochimaru into a blind rage; nor to make him so overconfident; nor to develop the chakra poison we loaded into the puppets to dispel the summons. We have been planning this since…that unfortunate day when we discovered what happened to Number Two."

"Is it time to move on?"

Taro nodded. "The old business is concluded. We may now proceed to new business."

"It's going to be harder, isn't it?"

Taro looked at the ashes from Orochimaru's body. "Any technique I could imagine is likely something that Sasori could reproduce. When we attack him, we have one chance. If we launch the attack and fail, but escape, we shall have to shelve every attack he witnessed from us – and design counters to them. I believe Sasori to be a learning enemy…unlike the Snake Sannin who thought too highly of his own skills."

"He was world renowned for his chakra sensing capabilities," Number Three said, with a smile.

"As I told you before, Number Three, any advantage can eventually be turned against you. I hope never to be as arrogant as our fallen opponents. Should I ever succumb…feel free to slap me around."

That got Number Three laughing. At the mental image and supreme difficulty of knocking around one of Naruto's true capacity.

"Should we tell anyone what we've done?" Number Three asked. It wasn't every day a pair of basically unranked and village-less ninja killed a famous S-ranked ninja.

"Perhaps."

"I think we should," Number Three pushed.

"If we do, we'll attribute it to Taro…just in time for the Taro personality to meet a fitting, public end. Neither of us can continue to grow if we have half the Elemental Nations monitoring us. It's bad enough that Sasori got interested…but we will end that as soon as we can."

Taro made the handsigns for an Earth Style technique. All the ash in front of Naruto was sucked down into the earth, a dozen meters down. Orochimaru's head would have brought in truly staggering sums…but Naruto didn't want any part of Orochimaru's body hanging around. Ninja bodies were dangerous things.

Who knew what a skilled medic nin could do with a bit of Orochimaru's brain or blood? Naruto didn't want to find out.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Naruto sat in his bunker in Tea Country and poured over thousands of records. He had files on every civilian who had ever entered a Grass Country village. Most were merchants of some sort.

Naruto was looking for something vital. This knowledge was precious. Indeed, the cost for all of this wealth of information – for this wealth of potential covers for espionage missions or infiltration assignments – had been the famed Grass Cutter sword that Naruto had ripped from Orochimaru when they'd fought in Konoha. The Grass jounin council had offered ryo, gem stones, jutsu scrolls…but the only remotely interesting thing they possessed were moldy old documents on civilians. Naruto took the only copies of them, thousands and thousands of records and photographs.

For what Naruto envisioned, this information, detailed and imperfect and true, was worth more than gold. He needed new identities. The ones he'd set up for his puppets operated by Kage Bunshin throughout the Elemental Countries were thin cover. Any of them coming under scrutiny wouldn't past muster.

With these files, Naruto could fine tune his many identities. He could give the manager of that tea drying warehouse a detailed background, imperfect and messy and guaranteed to be above reproach.

Why bother? It was a lot of time and effort to spend.

He needed spies. Lots more spies. If he was going to find Akasuna no Sasori, he needed an army of spies. Sasori had sought Naruto out; he'd found Number Two. Now Naruto needed to…return the favor. Sasori's spies were excellent and deeply placed throughout the elemental nations. He'd tracked down Naruto…and then later Number Two…without difficulty.

Matching that level of accomplishment would likely take some time.

So…more spies. Puppet spies in every walk of life: whores, vagrants, business owners, ramen shop attendants. Full identities, bits scraped from this file, other nuggets gleaned from a different file.

He definitely needed a strong presence in Suna, Sasori's home territory. It was also the home of the One Tail jinchuuriki….

Yes, Naruto realized. That was the way. These Akatsuki, according to Kabuto, were tracking the tailed beasts.

Naruto could set up his spies close to their usual locations. The Two Tail stayed forty kilometers outside of Hidden Cloud in a special military base. Naruto could set up a puppet as a military contractor, someone who dug ditches or cooked food or something. Things that ninja wouldn't do themselves.

The others… Naruto began sketching out what he knew of the other beasts. It wasn't much, as Kabuto had known little when he'd been captured.

Naruto worked long into the night sketching out plans. He finally had an inkling of how to trace back Sasori. He'd put out a general spy network, but he'd spend the greatest amount of his time tracking the tailed beasts. Sasori wouldn't be able to stay away from one or more of them forever.

Perhaps Jiraiya would know more about the tailed beasts. Interesting. Naruto yawned, stretched, and went to see the man named as his godfather.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Number Three and the Taro puppet had been on the road, nonstop, for the last six days. At present, they were cutting through Rice Country on their way to a base in Lightning Country. Naruto had to use Taro's abilities to set up his new spy ring. Sasori, a true spymaster, was able to mask his movements at will. It would take a large spy network…and a lot of luck…to discover the location of the insane puppeteer.

Number Three went along to relieve his anger – at Sasori – and his boredom. More than a few bandits met their end in the last week. He liked being outside far more than sitting inside.

He wondered, from time to time, if he had done the right thing staying with his sensei. He continued to learn and improve, of course, but Naruto wasn't much of a people person. He was brilliant, however, and had helped refine Number Three into a deadly ninja. He didn't know a lot of jutsu…no, he knew how to construct jutsu from scratch, a self-taught skill that was worth its weight in gold.

For now, Number Three resolved to stay. He was still learning, still improving. If that ever changed…then he would need to find a new sensei or go out totally on his own.

Number Three was inside his head more than a ninja should be. He almost didn't stop when he felt Taro grab at his arm.

"Pay attention," Taro whispered. Number Three blinked a few times and then saw he was about to step in something…unusual. There was something wet, and dark, on the path a few steps ahead. It didn't really look like dirt or grass. It looked most like tar. How could he have missed that?

Stupid!

"A trap?"

Taro nodded. "A type I've never seen before."

Number Three stepped backward while the Taro puppet didn't move at all. Both ninja were attempting to get a fix on the person who'd laid the trap. It looked something like a small version of one of Jiraiya's earth techniques, the Underworld Swamp. Even safe inside a bunker, Naruto didn't want to find out what kind of damage this little trap would inflict.

"Fuckers are smarter than I'd have thought," a rough voice boomed from off to the left of the path.

Naruto, using Taro's chakra network, tried to find the source of the voice…but couldn't. This was a high-level ninja, then, someone who could hide his presence from another skilled ninja.

"Don't be so crass, Kisame. Let's get this done," another voice said, this one a bit bored.

Number Three looked up and around in surprise. He recognized the name Kisame. This wasn't going to be good. He remembered what it was like being near to Orochimaru…and then to Sasori. Kisame, according to the Bingo Book, was just as fearsome an enemy, a master swordsman who wasn't afraid of ninjutsu, the man who'd killed a daimyo and a hundred or more of that man's samurai guardians.

A pair of ninja dressed in black robes with red clouds stepped from behind a thatch of trees and brush. Naruto was very concerned now. They'd been close, but they'd masked their chakra somehow. It was a technique that Naruto had not come across before.

Taro took up the conversation. Number Three and he had almost walked into a trap. They needed to regain an advantage, if possible.

"Akatsuki again," Taro said in a bored voice. "An Uchiha, likely, and then a ninja from Water Country. You honor me with your presence." Taro gave a mocking bow. Naruto knew it was almost always better to fight an angry enemy.

"Sasori didn't tell us you had a personality, little ninja. Good to know. Useful for a tombstone," the blue-skinned ninja said.

The Uchiha – Itachi, if Jiraiya's explanations were accurate – looked annoyed, but didn't comment on his partner's words. "Uzumaki Naruto, you will come with us. You have something that we require."

Taro and Number Three both laughed at that. It seemed that even the great Sasori hadn't sussed out that Taro was a puppet…or, if he had, he hadn't shared it with his Akatsuki colleagues.

Number Three was still nervous, but Taro was the most powerful ninja – human or puppet – Number Three had ever heard of. He tried not to show his nerves.

"I see nothing at all amusing," Itachi said. "Come with me now, Naruto, or perhaps I will allow my partner to practice some of his depravities upon you…."

"None of that sick shit, Itachi. I just said that I didn't think the kid needed his legs, not with what we need from him."

Taro smiled broadly. 'Stupid ninjas always have to talk, always have to threaten and chatter and waste time. Good for me; not so good for them.' The only thing staying his hand was Itachi. Naruto, back at the home base, wasn't sure what to do with the ex-Konoha ninja. The Uchiha wasn't quite the monster popular lore made him out to be; not with a signed order absolving him of the blame for the Uchiha Massacre.

All this time jabbering had given Naruto more than ample time to prepare the Flowing Red Death. Naruto had never tested it against S-ranked opponents, but it would be an interesting opening gesture. He was trying to choreograph what might come next if he needed more than the opening dance.

"Uchiha, I will have to politely decline your offer. I rather prize my body and have no interest in whatever you want with my tenant."

Kisame looked pleased and lifted his sword into a position to use it. "I was hoping you'd say that, little ninja."

"I am sorry, Itachi. Say goodbye to your partner."

A millisecond later a dozen red puppets sprung up from rocks inscribed with special seals. Kisame, to his credit, managed to evade three of his attackers in that instant. But nine of them struck home. Kisame's shredded body landed on the ground a moment after the red-tinted puppets vanished into thin air.

The puppets hadn't left Itachi untouched, either, but their purpose hadn't been to kill him. No, they'd cut his Achilles' tendons, the tendons in his wrists, and stabbed Itachi's Sharingan eyes. The last known Uchiha was alive, but would be unable to ever take up ninja duties again. He wouldn't be able to run or make handsigns. And his special eye techniques…were gone.

"Come, Itachi. I have much to ask you about. Number Three, please collect the sword and the head. Burn the rest of that traitor's body."

"Right away," Number Three said, more than a bit numb. He didn't know what had happened, other than a blur of red. It had moved faster than Number Three could even see. He immediately rethought his sensei. If a person his same age could do this, then Number Three should be able to do something unstoppable, too.

He needed to work harder.

"I don't need to suggest that you never mention what you saw today, Number Three. That technique is one of my most lethal…and it will continue to be effective so long as it's secret. This is only the second time I've ever used it in combat. It's success relies upon its remaining a secret."

Number Three just nodded. 'One of my most lethal.' Naruto was keeping secrets, it seemed. It was good that Number Three hadn't parted ways yet.

"If you have a storage scroll, would you mind sealing away the head and sword. It may be some time before we need them."

"Right," Number Three said.

Taro lifted a stoic and silent Itachi from the ground. "I think our good friend Itachi will have much of interest to tell us, especially regarding Sasori."

The three continued through Rice Country. Itachi didn't speak for a week…and only then after Naruto personally broke him of his silence. Number Three didn't envy the Uchiha that day. Naruto was brutal in extracting information.

The information, while interesting, just reinforced how cagey Sasori really was. No one, least of all Itachi, knew where Sasori spent his time when he wasn't on a mission. Naruto would need to find his prey the old fashioned way…through perseverance and dumb luck.


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

A/N: Yes, the previous chapter took me a long time to put together. The battle with Orochimaru didn't want to come together. This chapter came together far more easily.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

A Shadow Clone, henged to look like a nondescript personage, walked slowly and deliberately up a narrow dirt path into the mountains outside Hidden Cloud. There was a base there, most likely abandoned, that the Akatsuki had used in ages past.

The Shadow Clone had been created for one purpose: to deliver a warning and a promise.

The Clone carried two bags. One held the pieces of a famed ninja sword. The other, the head of a notorious murderer.

Today Naruto had sent his clone to make a statement. A 'Fuck You' unmistakable to anyone who witnessed the gruesome scene Naruto had concocted.

The hardest part had been getting this location. Then breaking Sameheda into pieces (liquid nitrogen and a sledge hammer had just been enough). This final act was nothing in comparison.

In less than an hour, Naruto's clone had pounded the three largest chunks of Sameheda into the stone near to the safehouse. It formed a little niche, one just large enough to house the head of its former master.

It was a macabre shrine. By the time some Akatsuki stumbled upon it, the blue skin would be gone, rotted or eaten. But the pieces of Sameheda were unmistable.

They would know that Uzumaki Naruto had declared war on them and on anyone they sent after him. The message was specifically for Sasori, a calling out.

It was almost samurai-like in its brazen stupidity. But it seemed like the right first step.

The Naruto clone stepped back and looked at the scene. It was correct. He dispersed himself and hoped the real Naruto would be pleased.

It didn't make up for the death of Number Two, but it was a step in the right direction.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

A blinded Uchiha Itachi heard stone moving against stone. It was his tormentor, the nine tail jinchuuriki, returning for some more brutalization. He hadn't fully bought into the scheme engineered by his sensei, Uchiha Madara, to capture all nine of the bijuu, but he wished he could have killed this bastard of a ninja.

Itachi felt revulsion about the other Uchiha he'd killed, but he possessed no small amount of pride in his own accomplishments. He was a powerful ninja, a traitor to the clan but for a good purpose; the greatest genius they'd ever produce. To be so thoroughly unprepared; to think that a mere boy could do nothing against one such as he, foolish. Pride goeth before a fall, the Third Hokage had once said about the Uchiha. So true.

He and Kisame had laid an ambush, so they'd never expected one in return. Itachi didn't even have his Sharingan active. He had no idea what those red blurs were even now. The jinchuuriki certainly wasn't telling.

"Still angry, Itachi?" Naruto's calm voice mocked even now.

Itachi said nothing.

"Fine, if it will help you to answer my questions, I will tell you that I expected no easy victory against you two if my initial attack failed. All swordsmen need a moment or three to get momentum. All ninjutsu users need time to make their handseals. My chosen arts are both faster and slower than yours. I defeated you with seals of my own design; seals it took me twenty-two seconds to prepare. Had you attacked immediately, you would have maintained surprise, you would have had the advantage. Your need to ask me to surrender was pointless…and it cost you your eyes."

Yes, Itachi now realized all that. "There are ninja stronger than you, jinchuuriki."

"Of that, I have no doubt. I am personally preparing to kill Akasuna no Sasori. I expect him to be the greatest challenge I've faced…."

Itachi frowned. "He's nothing compared to…." Here the Uchiha managed to stop himself. This bastard was fishing for information, information Itachi almost volunteered.

"Compared to whom, Itachi-kun?"

"I will say nothing further."

"You will. I have no doubt about it. But now, I need to prepare your body. I think it's highly unlikely you'll ever escape from here, but if you do you could have a medic nin attempt to repair the destroyed tendons in your arms and ankles. The seals I am going to inscribe on your body will ensure…well, my safety from you."

Itachi struggled. He resisted. In his weakened form, it was useless. Half an hour later he could feel his chakra feeding the seals, rather than remaining available for use in ninjutsu.

"Insidious, jinchuuriki. I can feel your seals robbing me of my chakra…."

"A prison for your body that you will never be free of."

"Then you have no leverage to get me to speak," Itachi calmly reasoned. "If you can't tempt me with my freedom, then you have nothing. Your seals prove I will never be free…."

"You no longer have a functional body, that is true. And I will never release you. But a prideful creature like yourself would betray everyone and everything in order to remain alive. You will talk, Itachi, or you will not receive food. I shall return in three or four days to see if you've changed your mind. I think the hunger will bend your opinion my way."

Even after feeling torture at Naruto's hand, Itachi was still surprised by how ruthless this boy really was. He would have to think on this threat and assess whether the jinchuuriki really meant it. If it were a bluff, then Itachi would want to kill himself for falling for it. If it were true, if Naruto could actually let another person starve to death…that was something different.

Yes, this required thought.

Stone groaned against stone. Naruto was gone again. Itachi was left with only his thoughts.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Three days later, Itachi knew that the jinchuuriki's threat was real. His life had been saved, unlike Kisame's, in order to extract information. If he refused to provide it, Naruto would kill him.

A simple fact.

As the stone stopped moving against stone, Itachi made his decision. He would answer the ninja's questions. He had broken and slipped during torture and gave what little he knew of Sasori's movements and hiding spots…but Itachi expected this calmer jinchuuriki would be even more uncaring. Neglect, fashioned correctly, could be more devastating than physical torture.

"From your body posture it seems you've steeled yourself to collaboration with your captor. I think it the better choice."

"Ask you questions, jinchuuriki."

"I will. Let me be clear, Itachi, about the seals on your body. They do steal nearly every drop of available chakra…but it is for a purpose. Your body is covered in special exploding seals, more than five hundred of them continually fed off your power. If I ever prove you've lied to me, I will show you how well they work. Do we have an understanding?"

"I have no choice."

"You do. Speak truth or die. Again, do you understand?"

"Yes."

"That is fine. My first question: the records I stole from Konoha ordering the Uchiha Massacre differ from what happened according to the popular accounts. Tell me the true story."

"Uchiha Madara had made plans decades ago…."

"Madara? That name sounds familiar…."

"He was a contemporary of the First and Second Hokages…."

"Another one of the immortality-seeking ninja, huh? Why do the powerful ones go that way?"

"He founded the Akatsuki, even if he hides in the shadows. He personally recruited our putative leader, Pain."

Naruto sighed. "So, compare this Madara to Sasori or Orochimaru."

Itachi had never seen Madara fight, but he had heard stories. "Madara beat Pain. Pain could beat Sasori and Orochimaru at the same time."

"Damn. Continue with the story about the massacre."

Naruto stayed long into the night. Sasori was picked over again. Everything Itachi had seen Sasori do…or hints as to how he thought. Then this was repeated for Pain, Madara, and everyone else Itachi knew in the Akatsuki. Especially troubling were the powers Itachi knew Madara possessed.

If Sasori wasn't enough, now there was Madara and Pain, too. Deidara used explosives. Konan could manipulate paper, even turning herself into paper. Zetsu made Naruto's skin crawl, a cannibal and a spy almost without restriction (the previous S-ranked ninja that Grass Country had tossed out for being too powerful). It was the freak show made powerful. Then Pain and his Rin'negan eyes. That would need studying.

Naruto brought Itachi food and watched the former ninja eat with difficulty. He took the tray of food away when he left.

Naruto came to one painful conclusion: if he tried to go up against Sasori now, Naruto would likely die. The unwise sending of Kisame's head to a former Akatsuki safe house would have these ninja on edge. He had tipped his hat without revealing the full strength he wielded…and they would be prepared.

Stupid. Stupid! Pride comes before the fall. Naruto couldn't keep from bragging; couldn't help but return Sasori's gruesome calling card. Now it would just prepare ninjas who were stronger and better trained.

It was time to take the heat off. It was time to retire for a while. It was time to finally begin preparing.

The seals and puppet techniques and poisons Naruto had amassed wouldn't do much against someone like Madara. He had to invent specific Madara-killers and Pain-killers. It would take years.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Jiraiya tumbled out of a storage scroll and blinked a few times before he realized he was outside. It had been a long time, months, since he'd been captured by that Grass ninja.

He got to his feet as gracefully as he could and looked around.

"What's the deal?"

A ninja – that damned Grass ninja who'd stopped wearing his forehead protector – stepped forward, smiling.

"The deal is simple. I have decided to test you to see if you're worth the bother of continuing to feed you, oh awesome Toad Sage."

"What!" Jiraiya felt like he'd been asleep for a week…now this crazy talk.

"A duel to the death." The Grass ninja's voice sounded mocking and cruelly playful.

"It's your funeral."

"Orochimaru said something similar before I killed him." Taro leapt forward and began to rain down blow after blow.

The assertion that Orochimaru was finally dead threw Jiraiya completely off his game – leaving aside the fact that he had been imprisoned for months and hadn't trained in that time. He reacted slowly and felt like he was being battered around by a bevy of women at the hot springs after Jiraiya had been caught peeping.

He pushed himself away from that insane Grass ninja and began forming handseals. Jiraiya needed to collect himself. "Toad Summoning Technique!"

In seconds he was atop Gamabunta…and the boss toad was complaining about being summoned. "Bunta, stop. That 'little squirt' down there claims he killed Orochimaru. I have no reason to doubt him."

"Bullshit," the massive toad shouted. "That snake Manda would have been pissing it about so loudly I would have heard of it. He takes some small pride in how evil his summoner is."

"I will enquire when this pest is gone. The eels are friends to both the toads and the snakes…."

Jiraiya just grunted and cut his summon off. "Give me some oil, Bunta."

A primitive flame thrower came into being and the ground thirty meters in front of the boss toad were scorched. Such a powerful weapon was hard to aim and retarget…so it wasn't too surprising Taro evaded the attack.

"If you're done gossiping, Jiraiya, I came to fight you, not an ancient creature who has much more sense than you do," Taro said. Then he jumped forward and jabbed a long thin knife into the summon.

The boss toad shrieked and dispersed into a huge cloud of smoke. Jiraiya fell and landed awkwardly, but he was still fully mobile.

"How did you do that?" Jiraiya asked.

"There are more things than are dreamt of in your philosophy, old man. This is not a lesson, it's a duel. Show me what you can do. Prove to me I was right to spare your life…."

Fear coursed through Jiraiya's body. "You! You might have kidnapped me, but there is no way you could kill me."

Taro leapt forward and landed two swift kicks to Jiraiya's backside. The Grass ninja moved faster than Jiraiya could clearly see. It was worrying.

Jiraiya took a few seconds to make his decision. He hadn't perfected the Sage Mode technique yet, so he had to get this out of a taijutsu spar. The embarrassing kicks to Jiraiya's ass told the old ninja that his young opponent could have already killed him, had he been serious. He was still playing for some reason. To get this on a better footing, Jiraiya needed an awesome technique.

Or a pair of them.

One hand slammed to the earth as he shouted out, "Swamp of the Underworld." The massive earth technique began to suck everything under. In his other hand, before he managed to stand up, he fashioned a Rasengan. The little Grass ninja would be getting the full treatment.

Jiraiya jumped from where he was to a tree on the edge of his chakra-created swamp. He clung to the trunk with one foot and a hand. He finally located Taro and jumped from spot to spot on his swamp. He had studied the technique for years and knew how to survive momentary brushes with it.

The Grass ninja hadn't seen it before and was trying to pull himself out of it. Serves the cocky bastard right.

Taro pulled himself out of the muck at about the same moment Jiraiya arrived with the Rasengan in hand. A thrust and a dodge.

Again and again, Taro wasn't where Jiraiya thought he'd be. How could he move like that. For a big, tall guy, he moved like the wind. It was almost like he didn't have a proper spine. What a monster of an opponent. Perhaps, in a moment of seriousness, this asshole from Grass really had killed Orochimaru.

"Hold still, damnit."

"I don't think so," Taro said, dodging again. "You want to put that…that ball of chakra through my body."

Jiraiya growled and lunged again. Nothing but air.

"How is this a duel if you won't attack?"

"I am letting the gray old man wear himself out before I bother. I figure you've got another five or ten minutes of stamina left, then we'll see…."

Shit! Jiraiya hadn't been thinking about that.

Taro then pulled out a kunai and began attacking for real. Jiraiya would try to land the Rasengan…and would miss. Taro would pull away at the last second and manage to draw a faint line of blood from Jiraiya's arm or shoulder.

Jiraiya almost dispelled the Rasengan and attempted a Rasenshuriken, one of the unfinished techniques of his most promising student, one likely not to work completely as intended. Instead, he launched himself for another attack. He hand thrust forward…to catch nothing. Instead, Jiraiya began to howl in pain. Taro's kunai was now embedded in the older ninja's pelvis with a crushing amount of force.

"I'd heard that an old pervert like you used your brain too little and your groin too much. I see I failed to end your career as a Peeping Tom…but perhaps you'll think better of it next time."

"I am going to crush you, you little fuck," Jiraiya gasped, in more pain than he'd ever been in. Not even a beat down from Tsunade left him this angry, enraged, and impotent. There was something very odd, very dangerous about this Grass ninja. If Jiraiya didn't figure out his weaknesses soon, the Toad Sage would be dead.

Perhaps taijutsu was his strong suit? Did Jiraiya need to find an elemental weakness? The Toad Sage had, through many years of pain and training, become proficient in the main five elements. Would this younger ninja be invulnerable to all of them?

Jiraiya smelled salt water nearby. He decided to try a combination water and lightning attack to stun the Grass ninja.

"Electric Lashing Mist."

When he exhaled, a salty pressurized mist shot at Taro crackling with electrical energy. It wasn't a wide area attack like the Swamp, but it was effective. Jiraiya had learned it off an asshole ninja from Hidden Cloud who'd attacked him years ago. Jiraiya remembered the technique and buried that asshole in an unmarked grave.

The surprise attack hit the Grass ninja in the shoulder. Blood and bone and flesh dissolved instantly. The ninja's left arm became useless. But it didn't stun him. The young ninja resisted the crackling electricity. It should be enough to stop a heart for a few moments.

Instead of anger, Jiraiya earned laughter from his target. "Finally something new, old man. A good attack. I'm more of a hand-to-hand combat specialist, but I know a few interesting techniques. Let's see how you feel about this one in return…."

Taro knelt and slammed his good right hand and his mostly useless left one on the ground. "Exploding Mountain Perfusion." In all directions, save for a small ring of safety for Taro, jagged pillars erupted from the ground in all directions. More than one slammed in Jiraiya. Taro smiled, lifted his hand off the ground, and the pillars fell away. It was a terribly draining technique.

It became a slugfest again. Neither ninja had enough chakra to continue throwing out high level techniques like that. But Jiraiya's attack had succeeded in making Taro slower and less lethal. A one-armed ninja was disadvantaged against a ninja who was tired but had both arms.

Jiraiya realized he was winning because Taro was losing blood faster than Jiraiya was. Jiraiya landed a good punch into the Grass ninja's good shoulder and that sent the man down.

Jiraiya slammed his hands onto the ground again. "Swamp of the Underworld."

This time Taro did not evade the attack. He seemed almost out of it, unable to respond. The devastating earth technique took hold of Taro and drug him deep underground.

Jiraiya released the technique then, leaving his opponent – and one-time captor – dead under meters and meters of earth and stone.

Jiraiya collapsed on the ground. Why had that crazy ninja held back for so long? He'd played with Jiraiya for most of the battle and only gotten serious in the last few minutes. That bastard could have crushed Jiraiya…and it was only two lucky blows that saved Jiraiya from death.

He tried to calm himself and slow his breathing. He was terribly out of shape right now. Damn! So close, so close to death. Sarutobi-Sensei should thump him a good one for doing so poorly. That Grass ninja was bad news.

Jiraiya got to his feet and began walking. The pain from his hip reminded him he had a kunai lodged in the bone. He knew some medic techniques, but he wasn't sure whether it was better to leave the kunai in or to take it out and try to staunch the blood flow.

Damn. He didn't even have enough chakra left to summon a medium size toad.

He took a step and then almost screamed. He lowered himself to the ground. He'd recover for a bit, summon a toad. He'd find a road. The road would lead him to a village. Then he could get directions back to Fire Country. He needed to inform the Hokage of these happenings. He also needed to summon Gamabunta in a day or three to see if Orochimaru was truly dead.

He was hurt, terribly, but he would survive. He would heal and get strong again. He wouldn't let something like this happen again.

Not ever.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Naruto was sad to say goodbye to his Taro identity. He'd created and even lived inside many of the fifteen different versions of the Taro puppet he'd created over the years. The last one, created specifically to battle Jiraiya, used real blood and bone and tissue that a few bandits had unwillingly donated to the cause.

Working with dead bodies that way made Naruto feel sick, even weeks after the fact. He would not be attempting such a thing again, not if he could avoid it.

He finished eating breakfast in his small hovel in Earth Country. He was going to spend a few weeks personally establishing his new identity before he turned it over to a Shadow Clone.

Number Three was walking up the path from his cottage a kilometer away. He had insisted on joining Naruto in his training exercise.

"Even if it lasts years?" Naruto had asked.

"Even so."

Number Three walked to the door which Naruto then opened. "Morning," Naruto's student said.

"Ready to plant some trees?"

"Yes. Let's get going?"

"Have you given some thought to a disguise? At least a name? I can't, for safety's sake, continue to call you Number Three."

"I gave my true name up when I left Grass with you, sensei. I am now Number Three, in my mind and my heart. But for the purpose of a disguise, I…I would be called Yama Yaki."

"It means 'Burning the Hills.' Isn't that a touch dramatic?"

"No, I think it's just right."

Naruto, with grey hair and a good deal of a tanning solution making him dark brown, just nodded. If Number Three wished such an obvious name, they could make it work. Many people from the larger villages renamed themselves if they were fleeing the law. Earth Country's farming population was filled with people who were fleeing dark pasts elsewhere.

That's why it was a perfect place to hide for a period of time.

In a few weeks, they'd carve out a new underground bunker to use as a training facility. Then they could resume training.

To kill Sasori.

To deal with Pain and Madara.

To realize Naruto's dream of being the strongest ninja ever…even without a whole body.

As Naruto and his student settled into work, Naruto wondered if that was an adequate goal any longer. Strength and revenge was a young man's work. Eventually he'd age; he'd need a new goal.

Assuming he surived Sasori, Pain, and Madara.

A big assumption.


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21

A half dead Jiraiya arrived in Konoha three days after his duel with Taro. His toad carriers were most displeased that the Toad Sage had refused medical attention in any one of the small villages they'd passed by.

Paranoia could be a bad thing. It had almost killed Jiraiya.

The lead toad carrying his summoner took the old ninja directly to the hospital, even though Jiraiya insisted on seeing the Hokage.

The ANBU obviously informed the Hokage about Jiraiya's unusual reappearance, wounded and raving and carried in by a bunch of massive toads.

As the Hokage walked into the hospital, he heard a recapitulation of the raving. Apparently Jiraiya had killed a man who had killed Orochimaru. And he'd been the dead man's captive. And the Grass ninja was 'one scary motherfucker.'

The comments about a Grass ninja caught Sarutobi's interest. Naruto had assumed an identity there as…Taro.

Sarutobi arrived at the top floor, in the secure wing. Jiraiya had a lot of enemies, many of them husbands or former husbands of women Jiraiya had 'entertained,' and Sarutobi didn't want his spymaster killed while asleep in a drug-induced stupor.

The Hokage watched the medic nin repairing Jiraiya's injuries. He overheard that it would take some time for the ninja's bones to heal, but they they had begun knitting together muscle and flesh already.

The Hokage walked into the room.

Jiraiya, even under the haze of pain medications, tried to talk.

"Stop, my student. I heard bits and pieces of your ravings. I will try to see what makes sense. You claim Orochimaru is dead?"

"The toads confirmed it. Manda is despondent," Jiraiya sounded smarter when he was on morphine it seemed even if he was slurring his words.

The Hokage was quiet for a long while. "I suppose you shouted this to everyone you met?"

"Pretty much."

The Hokage frowned. What good was a spymaster if he couldn't keep a secret? Orochimaru's unexpected death opened up some complications, some positive, some less so.

The biggest problem was that Orochimaru had attacked Hidden Leaf, failed, and then been killed by someone other than a Hidden Leaf ninja. It made the village look weak and foolish – if the story got out. Which Jiraiya had apparently done.

"Who claims to have killed him?"

"Bastard Grass ninja who kidnapped me…."

Sarutobi's eyes went wide. This could very well be Naruto, the same boy who likely destroyed the grocer who'd contributed to the loss of his leg. The Hokage nodded at the medical attendants and they quickly left the room. Jiraiya was stable enough for confidential talk.

"His name?"

"Tako… Tado?"

"Taro? Taro of the River?"

Jiraiya nodded a bit. "That's it."

"You say you killed this man, the one who claimed to have killed Orochimaru?"

"Fucker broke my pelvis. He was going for my cannon and the gunner's mates with a bloody kunai…."

The Hokage rolled his eyes. Such lines were amusing in a filthy novel, but not in a serious conversation.

"Are you sure he's dead? Really dead. I am going to need a highly accurate description of the battle, Jiraiya."

"Why?"

"I believe it is possible that this Taro killed Orochimaru. I do not believe, however, that you killed him."

"I fucking did," the Toad Sannin shouted. Apparently morphine made him more profane than usual.

"Did he bleed? Did you see him bleed?"

"I blasted his shoulder good. Lots of blood…."

That had Sarutobi stumped. Puppets, as he assumed Naruto to be using, didn't bleed.

"Let me tell you a story, my student. Listen carefully, then we will compare notes. When Orochimaru sequestered me during the battle a few months back, I began losing badly. Then I vanished. I still don't know how. When I was conscious again, I was sitting inside the Hokage Monument talking to this Taro of the River. He had some harsh words for me…but he also called me Old Man. Only one other person has dared call me that…Naruto. I believe this Taro is Naruto's alter ego…or is perhaps a puppet of Naruto's design…."

"No," Jiraiya said. "Not my godson. The bastard's first questions were about Naruto… I don't understand."

"Sleep, Jiraiya. We will speak again later. I have much to consider about your story. I also need to see if I can tamp down the rumors you've started…."

"Good luck with that."

"I know."

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

A farmer with a cart hooked up to a stubborn mule walked slowly through Earth Country on his way to River Country. He was nearly at the Earth/Grass border.

He'd already sent his colleague, 'Burning the Hills,' ahead to find a couple of likely places to get situated. Of all the places Naruto had ever lived, he liked River Country the best. Given the chance, he opted to return there over spending time in the resorts of Fire Country or the beauty of Tea Country or any other place he'd known.

There was just something liberating about the place.

Naruto had left a fully articulated puppet in his stead back at the farm. There were a team of Shadow Clones to run that puppet…and enough to spare in case urgent information was discovered. One could just pop and Naruto would have the information immediately.

The last six months had woken Naruto to the fact that he needed to delegate. He tried to keep direct control over as many puppets as possible. He tried to do it all…but it wasn't working. Now he'd arrived at using Shadow Clones to monitor his spying puppets. He had infiltrators, with deep backgrounds, in eight villages in Lightning Country. He placed several in Wind Country, including one right in Hidden Sand. He was gathering information on the other jinchuuriki. Not every country was as cavalier with their secret weapons as Hidden Leaf, Cloud, and Sand. Some ninjas actually knew how to practice secrecy and deception.

Naruto walked to the side of his mule, but suddenly tugged on its halter to stop. There were some odd chakra flowing around in the woods to the south.

A ninja battle.

Naruto was perfectly capable of holding his own in any battle…hell, against even a Sannin he could paralyze a person and take over their body as an unwilling puppet. It wasn't quite mind control – there were some ninja who could do that – but it would be very devastating for a bunch of bandits or low-level ninja to suddenly have to fight against their own.

He led the mule and his cart off the road to a shady area. He tied the mule to a tree and went to investigate.

A lone ninja, masked, battled against three others. It appeared that another three were already dead or immobilized. Naruto stood close to a tree and masked his chakra as best he could. That skill was his greatest breakthrough in the last six months; he'd made progress on other fronts, but he'd done the most with chakra masking.

The masked ninja was skilled. He used two short swords to block and attack his three enemies. He was graceful dodging a ninjutsu attack…some sort of water bullet. He hacked and slashed and made it look graceful.

One of the three fell to a slash across his throat. The two remaining attackers intensified. They saw the writing on the wall. If they were to die they would take their killer with them.

Naruto saw the masked ninja turn his attention to the better of the two remaining ninja. That left an opening for the other ninja to pounce.

When the long sword arced, Naruto decided to toss his hat into the ring…just a bit. He attached a chakra string to the ninja's hand and tugged a bit, just a bit for the lethal blow to bounce off the masked ninja's armor.

It got the masked man's attention…and his would-be killer wound up with a gaping throat wound.

The one-on-one battle took a few minutes. The last remaining unmasked ninja was quite skilled with a blade. He also used lightning affinity chakra to punch up his attacks.

But the masked ninja was winning, slowly but surely. It was an impressive battle to watch.

When the masked ninja delivered a killing blow, he said, "I'm sorry. You were very skilled." He actually sounded apologetic. For a ninja, it was nothing strange to admire your opponent's strengths.

But…Naruto concentrated on that voice. It was familiar. He'd heard it for years from one of his students, Number One. It was good to know he was still alive.

Naruto watched Number One immediately transition from battle to clean up. He sliced off one of his opponents' heads.

Naruto decided to see how his old student was doing…without compromising his current identity. "Hey, what are you doing there?" Naruto used the Earth Country accent he'd developed over the last six months.

At that Number One looked up, startled. His hand was ready to throw a kunai before he recognized that a mere civilian, a dirty farmer, was talking to him.

"Do not concern yourself. This man is a criminal from Waterfall Country. I am a bounty hunter of sorts…."

"Do you have to hack their heads off?"

"I must prove these criminals are dead, master farmer. Now, if you'll let me get back to my work."

"Yeah, yeah. Gruesome work. Bah. Give me a patch of daikon any day." Naruto walked back to his mule and continued on his way.

Number One was well, still alive, and practicing his desired trade. Naruto had done a small, nameless service for his former student in saving him from a savage sword blow. It felt nice.

Perhals Number Three would be glad to know that Number One was fairing so well. The hunter nin life was a tough one.

But his student seemed to thrive. Six-on-one and winning? Very nice work, even if Naruto couldn't say much for the boy's common sense. A ninja typically didn't plan to have these kinds of confrontations. But Number One was always more about trapping and genjutsu: if a trap failed, then he just might wind up with a whole lot of angry ninja on his hands.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Thirty months pass.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Naruto walked up to a civilian house, knocked on the yelled, and received a shouted admittance. He walked inside, just to be attacked…by a soggy toy thrown at his head.

Number Three's son was less than a year old, and he liked to stick everything he touched in his mouth, but he was also highly accurate in hitting whatever he wanted. Naruto had been pelted by toys, soft foods, soggy bits of clothing, you name it.

He found he liked being, as Number Three jokingly put it, Uncle Naruto to the little sprog. The kid had the better features of Number Three (cheeks and eyes) and his civilian wife (hair and ears). The little boy was doted upon and loved…and it just made Naruto happy to see it, normalcy.

Today was the twenty-seventh birthday of his covering identity here in River Country…so, of course, Number Four insisted on holding a party. A big party. Naruto's exploits in the last few years training and testing techniques against masses of bandits and missing nin had netted them some fair amount of ryo…which they had used to purchase all this land.

Number Three enjoyed playing the role of a wealthy, minor daimyo, holding court over the farmers and merchants whose interests fell within his land.

Naruto was here, of course, as the elder of two brothers. The wealthier and more desirable one. He was being put, as Number Three said, onto the meat market for perusal.

In reality, gossip parties like this one – for seeing and being seen – were excellent occasions to gather rumors and unconfirmed intelligence. They were also fairly useful for disseminating information, too.

Naruto had just returned from two months in Wave County spent in one of his bunkers. It was hard…nay, impossible…to design techniques to fight against people one had only ever heard described. He had books filled with ideas, some of which actually worked. But very little of it felt natural.

Three years spent planning, growing stronger, developing new techniques. Or rather turning old techniques into stronger, more finished attacks. He had a full complement of anti-Sasori techniques now. He'd turned the ghost stories of his youth into tools to use against the puppeteer. The rumors of human puppets, and one who wielded metallic sand, were probably just rumors, but Naruto was ready if they were true. He was ready with an army. He had gotten much better at crafting heartstones for his puppets. He had developed new poisons. He had put together smaller and smaller micropuppets.

And he had learned some ninjutsu…and stopped hiding in bunkers all the time. Naruto, even without hauling out some of the puppets he kept in scrolls, or releasing heartstones he always carried on his person, was a fucking tough fighter.

He might be missing a left leg…which was a vulnerability…but no one in the last decade or so had ever managed to turn it against him. Damn that foolish Hokage!

Naruto stopped the grumpy thoughts and sat down to play with his little 'nephew,' Usagi. The other guests would be directed outside to the rear terraces. Naruto could spend some time inside, getting into character like some sort of kabuki entertainer.

"Naruto," a woman's voice said, "it's so good to see you."

"Koenigii, a pleasure. I can't believe you let him throw this horrible party."

"He loves to entertain, what can I say?" As much as Number Three loved his wife, she did not know about who Naruto really was. She did know that her husband was a retired ninja, though, but Naruto's secrets were his own. She thought the man was merely an older adoptive brother of her husband.

"Am I very early?"

"Not for this thing. The invitations say one o'clock. But the gauche start showing at noon."

"Thankfully I didn't get an invite, just a verbal 'show up then' kind of thing."

"Yes, for having money, my husband hasn't much adapted to its strictures."

"Unlike your family, he did not come from money." Koenigii was the youngest daughter of a local daimyo, child number 17 of 19. She had to marry well or she wouldn't have had a pot to piss in.

That was when Number Three walked into the room. "Naruto, how nice of you to come early. Have some lunch?"

"Thank you, Seiiki. I would enjoy that."

"Grab up that handful of trouble and let's find some food."

The meal was pleasant. Koenigii talked about some of the guests who would be coming. Seiiki mocked them. Usagi put everything within reach in his mouth. If it wasn't food, he'd pull it out and throw it. Hard. Usually at Naruto.

Instead of feeling irritation, it made Naruto feel…joy. It was a fun distraction, to keep from thinking about an uncertain future.

He was powerful in a military sense, but Madara or Pain would likely beat him in a straight fight. He worried about the power he was trying to accumulate in other disciplines: intelligence power, economic power (such as this estate run by Number Three), and eventually political power. The strongest ninja in the world couldn't fight very well if the power-that-be decided to starve him out, deprive him of resources, use artillery to bombard his likely locations. Political power, such as his identity of a Tea Country warehouse manager getting elected village mayor, took time to build…but then it began to repay the investment (maybe).

Too many moving pieces, too many ways to go.

Should he try to out-shinobi these Akatsuki? Or should he engineer an embargo on Rain Country, where all the rumors put these strangely powerful ninja at various times and places? Or invent a war between Earth and Rain? Those Rock ninja were such bastards it wouldn't take much provocation.

No, this was better, simpler. Getting pelted with silverware and having a nice, restful meal.

"So, which of these young ladies coming are on the hunt for a husband?"

Koenigii just laughed. "For someone of sufficient means, like yourself, my brother-in-law…all of them."

The young ladies, looking to impress, would serve up their best stories, the best fodder. Naruto found all these people throwing themselves at him…distasteful. But he had to gather intelligence…and sometimes gossip was more suggestive than cold, hard fact.

The world had changed. It was hard keeping track of things some days. Conventional truths weren't always useful any more.

Things were different.

Naruto was now 18 years old, even if his character was 27. Jiraiya of the Sannin had been the Fifth Hokage in Hidden Leaf for just over two years. The legend of Taro of the River got bigger with every passing month. Number Three had taken a public name – Namikaze Seiiki, a fairly common surname in these parts but meant more as a tribute to Naruto's true heritage – and settled on a large tract of land in River Country with his wife and nine month year old son, effectively retiring as a ninja.

But in fact serving as the deepest cover type of operative.

It was all to a purpose. Sasori still breathed air he should not be entitled to. Naruto hadn't invented a Pain-killer or Madara-killer even after years of trying. The military power seemed too fragile, too little as Naruto began to understand the wider world.

That hadn't been an easy conclusion to draw. But Naruto had exhausted what he knew of military might. He'd even had a fucking visit with the Kyuubi no Kitsune. The short answer: the beast was useless for Naruto's purposes save for permitting Naruto an almost limitless amount of chakra.

Even that came at a cost. Naruto had to fight all the time to maintain excellent chakra control. If he went a day without using chakra cables, the next day was twice as hard to work the technique. Plus, aside from the Kyuubi in his mind addressing Naruto as 'a damned cripple,' when Naruto attempted to test the demonic chakra – as Gaara had done at the Chuunin Selection Exams – his body was wracked with pain, specifically the stump of his left leg. It was almost as if the Kyuubi was attempting, and failing, to regrow the leg.

The Kyuubi's power was useless for the puppeteering lifestyle…and for someone with a massive disability.

These three years hadn't yielded much. The killer techniques hadn't materialized. He seemed stuck in a rut. He maintained his vigilance with a wide spying network, but there hadn't been a single blip on the Sasori front.

But the ninja would pop up sometime soon. The jinchuuriki were out there. Naruto was having all of them, save for the Seven Tail that he still hadn't managed to track down, watched.

Number Three, his wife, and child accompanied Naruto out of doors. The guests were already here. Naruto, introduced as "Namikaze Yon or Naruto to his friends" (a little joke of Number Three's), met with every buxom woman in the crowd. He heard many, many stories. Ninja exploits tended to be particularly bandied about in civilian areas…whereas ninja tended to tell mocking stories of their opponents or their political masters, Hokages and daimyos.

"My older brother just came back from a ninja village, you know," a young blue haired girl exclaimed, twittering the whole time. "The Village Hidden in the Waterfall. It sounded so…interesting."

"Really," 'Yon' said. "Is he a trader or a merchant of some type?"

"Yes, he was buying animal skins to make into leather. It was just total luck he heard about Hidden Waterfall and their need to sell a mass of skins. He couldn't take any pictures of course, as they insisted it was a military location and very secret. He only got to see a little bit of the place, but he said it was massive. A couple thousand people could live inside the caves they use."

"A village inside caves. That sounds very uncomfortable," 'Yon' said, playing up his role as a young nouveau-riche noble.

"You'd think so, but he said it was very nice. They somehow got light in from outside. And he just took in everything. All the ninja everywhere. He'd never seen so many…all different kinds of headbands…."

Like a good noble, time to flaunt some knowledge…and verify if this girl was just making up stories out of whole cloth. "Really? I thought each kind of headband belonged to a different village…."

"I don't know about that. But my brother described a few of them. They sounded very different…except all of them had a long line running through the middle of the design."

Naruto's first thought was 'missing ninja.' This was an interesting tip. "Perhaps. If I ever get up that way, I'll try to see if they'd give me a tour." That got the girl laughing, as ninjas didn't give tours. "Can I get you another drink?" 'Yon' asked.

The party continued for hours.

Indeed, it was growing dark before Number Three got efficient in 'suggesting' that people head off for the night. It had been a garden party during the afternoon…not a dinner party.

Dinner was for 'family' only. As Naruto was digging into the main course, roasted fish and vegetables, he got a blast of information in his mind from a dispelled Shadow Clone.

The spy network had turned up a lead at long last. The One Tail jinchuuriki, Sabaku no Gaara, had been kidnapped. The puppet assigned to Suna had actually caught sight of Sasori's battle puppet.

"Seiiki, can I talk to you?"

"Is everything all right?" Number Three stood and began moving from the dinner table.

In the hallway leading to the main door, Naruto explained the new information. Seiiki looked apologetic and began to speak, but Naruto waved him quiet.

"This is no longer your fight. You have a child and this cover to maintain. I will handle the battle. You work on the wealth accumulation. You are working on another type of power for our plans."

"Be careful, sensei."

"As much as I can."

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

It was only hours from River Country into Wind…and a few more hours to meet up with the Shadow Clone attempting to track Gaara's kidnappers.

The Shadow Clone doing the tracking dispelled. They were in a cave. As Naruto assimilated the memories, he realized he was close, very close, only two kilometers away.

He began to run as he prepared mentally for battle. Sasori was likely very close…as well as his Akatsuki partner. The puppeteer used to be partnered with Orochimaru, and had been partnered with that terrorist bomber from Hidden Rock before Naruto captured Itachi…now, who knew who the partner might be?

He cataloged his resources. He had a variety of puppets in scrolls. He had heart stones in a wide variety of styles. He had poisons and micropuppets and some devastating sealing array monstrosities and a few special surprises designed for someone like Sasori.

He had the Flowing Red Death. It had worked against Kisame and Itachi…but Sasori was likely a whole class above those other ninja. It was a last resort…. He tried not to think of how badly things would have to go before needing to use that technique.

He ran. He cleared his mind. The longer these bastards had control of Gaara the less likely a good outcome was possible. He fought the battle in his head and hoped that the Art of War would serve him well this day.

As Naruto arrived at the cavern entrance, a blonde ninja emerged. Deidara, if Itachi's descriptions were accurate.

"Another puppeteer, yeah? My art is better than anything you can put together, jinchuuriki."

Sasori knew about Naruto as a puppeteer. Naruto hadn't been sure…but now it was obvious. The spymaster who had captured Number Two would have extracted everything possible before killing her.

"I've studied your art, as well, Rock Ninja. Perhaps you'll like my advances." Naruto swiped blood across a sealing scroll and threw the thing at Deidara…a second later, a startled Kabuto appeared in a poof of smoke. When he was fifteen feet away from Deidara when he hit the ground, the hundreds of exploding seals on Kabuto's body all exploded at the same time. Naruto was a good ways a way and it still threw him off his feet.

Deidara had been preparing a clay constrosity – an explosive of some sort – but he was blown into the hard stone around the cavern's mouth. The half formed explosive remained on the ground. Deidara was bleeding from his mouth and ears.

Naruto went on the offensive. His chakra strings invaded Deidara's body. It paralyzed him…and then brought him up and began moving him as if he were severely injured. Something darkened the cavern entrance and then waved at Deidara. The former Rock ninja limped over…slowly, shaking a bit and weaving. The blood was genuinely cascading from his mouth, nose, and ears.

He was dying from the shock of the explosion. But, as long as he was alive, Naruto could use him.

Other chakra strings began etching on Deidara's flesh underneath his cloak. He wouldn't be able to cover the Akatsuki member in 500 seals, as Kabuto had been, but he'd managed a few before Deidara reached the end of the line.

It wasn't a surprise when the plan failed. Sasori was good enough to detect the foreign chakra in Deidara body. Naruto didn't know exactly what had happened, but he felt Deidara's body almost disintegrate. From where the chakra strings had been, Deidara lost the entire left side of his body.

A few moments later, Naruto had his answer.

A pale ninja in a black cloak emerged at the mouth of the cavern.

He wasn't human, not any longer. He had a preserved sheen to him. The rumors about Sasori's experiments with dead ninja were true. Even when he'd been a mere kid visitng Suna once a week, people in the hidden village passed around stories like this as campfire fodder to scare the kids. But it wasn't a horror story.

It was true.

When a blast of blackish-grayish sand erupted from his cloak pockets, Naruto had his final confirmation. The Third Kazekage had been turned into a puppet. Naruto had long prepared for this possibility.

Naruto drew a long, thin scroll from his pocket. His already bleeding thumb wicked across it. Ugly matte black stones tumbled to the ground. Naruto attached chakra strings to them and threw a volley of six – each as heavy as an ancient style cannonball – at the human puppet.

The metal grains flew out of their controlled attacking formation and stuck inches deep to each of the magnets. The magnets thudded with some force against the human puppet – and stuck. The human puppet was almost knocked off his head with the force.

It wasn't a perfect defense. Naruto had to duck and dodge the smaller amount of metallic sand that flew at him. He knew better than to let any of it touch him. A few hundred grains of that stuff, properly controlled, could flay the skin off his bones.

More chakra propelled magnets into the stream of the sand. Naruto used up another five magnets capturing what he could.

He could only hope that the human puppet was out of sand, that he could destroy this puppet, and move onto its master…but that was too optimistic.

Sasori was still inside the cavern, of course. He was a thinking opponent. He'd just seen one of his most powerful creations neutralized.

The human puppet withdrew back into the cave. Naruto had his remaining dozen magnets arrayed around his body in case of another, sudden attack.

But, this time…this time a familiar, hateful visage filled the doorway. It was Sasori himself in his battle puppet.

"You have the luck of the damned, Uzumaki."

"Shall we see what kind of destruction we can create?" Naruto asked.

The Sasori puppet shook its massive head from side to side. "Such a stupid ninja, but such good fortune.

"I myself made it impossible to continue my important work. We're down quite a few rings thanks to you…but we needed Deidara's for our festivities today…and I just shredded it with my puppet's metallic sands.

"Your cleverness in getting me to attack my colleague has saved you this day. I must withdraw immediately, but I will enjoy watching you wither and die very soon. I'll be back for Gaara later. For now, he's yours. Try not to let him die. We still need the Shukaku."

The massive puppeteer was surprisingly fast. He disappeared even as all of his instincts were telling him to engage pursuit. But…but. Gaara was still inside. Why was he left inside without a fight? Naruto wouldn't put it past Sasori to have trapped the place.

Was there some other reason, something more sinister?

He shelved the question and pulled out a heartstone and gave form to an Earth-type Puppet Clone. Such an affinity would enable it to better detect and avoid any traps Sasori might have laid.

He took over control and sent the puppet inside. Within minutes Naruto found and had his puppet disable six traps, none lethal, but all would have been severely injuring.

Gaara was deep inside the cave and not conscious. It was an odd room, set up for a ritual of some sort. The puppet surveyed the room, allowing Naruto to get some idea of its shape and dimensions, and checked again for traps.

The puppet scooped up Gaara and carried him out. The small young man shifted a bit when he entered the dying light of the afternoon.

Naruto formed up a pair of Shadow Clones – which were far less resistant than his Puppet Clones and might have been injured disarming a trap – and had them carry Gaara. He did this to maintain the secrecy of the Puppet Clone technique.

When he dispelled the puppet, he stooped over and picked up the heartstone. One made for permanency could be reused again and again; it was only those made quickly for the Flowing Red Death technique that had a single use.

Naruto and his unconscious rescuee set out into the desert, not toward Suna. The place and its protections didn't exactly inspire confidence at this time. No, Naruto would take Gaara – the current Kazekage – to a bolthole to rest up and heal. And to answer some questions.


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

An agitated Gaara woke up an hour after he was tucked into a safehouse on the edge of the River/Fire border. Naruto had doped him with a chakra disrupting serum so he didn't launch an immediate attack.

"Who are you?" He sounded like a small, terrified boy, rather than a Kazekage. Fear could do many things, few of them good.

"I may look different now, Lord Kazekage, but you know me. I adjusted your seals years ago…."

"Taro? You look nothing like Taro."

Naruto laughed at Gaara's tone of voice. Even the Kazekage seemed to be a fan of Taro's legend: the man who'd stopped a demon, killed the Snake Sannin, and done who knows what else. It had been perfect to use Jiraiya to stage Taro's death. The gossipy man had spread around what he knew of Taro long before he realized that the battle was too strange, too staged.

"Your brother is a puppeteer or was some years ago. I am also a puppeteer, self taught. Taro was one of my creations. I rode inside him and appeared to the world as a tall, experienced ninja when I was in truth a fourteen year old kid."

Gaara's open mouth was just a bit funny.

"No. No, puppeteers can't do that, can they? Kankurou can't."

"It's a choice. Your friend Sasori," here Gaara's face darkened and tiny fragments of dirt and sand on the floor began to move haltingly, "rides in the belly of his puppet, if my sources are correct. Your brother carried his puppet on his back; Sasori's puppet and my former puppet carried each of us around."

Naruto was not about to admit that he could control puppets remotely from a great distance. But it was no great loss to admit that he had once rode around inside Taro to help disguise his age – after all, it was a technique he planned never to have to use again.

One was only pitifully young once.

"Why did you save ne? How did you know I was gone?" Gaara was smarter than Naruto remembered. He wasn't Kazekage just because of his demonic tenant.

Naruto paused before answering. It wasn't a plesant answer no matter how he sugar coated it.

"I placed a spy in Suna. I knew that the Akatsuki were uncommonly interested in jinchuuriki, so I had someone watching you. He caught the last bits of your abduction, contacted me, and sent someone to follow along behind you to see where they took you…."

Gaara got angry at this. "You expected them to do this? To try to kill me?"

Naruto shrugged. "Yes."

"And you had a spy in my village? For how long?"

"Years."

"A spy in my village for years…and I didn't know about it. I know about all the spies. I know who reports back to Iwa and who to Kusa and who to Kumo. I know this because it's my business to know this. But I did not know about your spy. What are you, whatever your name is?"

"For now, call me Taro. It will save questions."

The no-long-scared Kazekage looked ready to kill something.

"Tell me about these…'Akatsuki.'"

"They value the power of the bijuu. My 'spy' does not know what they will do with them once they're collected, but he knows it is to be some type of weapon. There are supposed to be nine or ten members all told, and I just learned a few hours ago about the special rings they wear. My primary 'spy' had withheld that information from me. They aim to kill you and take the Shukaku, if you didn't already understand that…."

"Who? Who are they?"

"Your captors? One was a fellow Suna ninja, Akasuna no Sasori…."

"That was really him, wasn't it? Until recently, I thought it was just a bad tale that parents would tell their children. 'If you misbehave, Sasori or Gaara will get you.'"

"Ah, but you are real, Gaara. Just as Sasori is real…."

"I understand. Now. But I do not know why I am in this cave."

"Assuming we weren't watched or followed – 50/50 chance I'd say – this will keep you safe for the immediate future. You needed to rest and heal. And we needed to have this conversation, Lord Kazekage."

"You aren't telling me something. There is a price for your help, I assume."

"Yes, there is a price. But you get to choose what you'll pay. It isn't a permanent cost, either. So, you will either nominate a deputy to serve Suna until Akatsuki is dealt with and go into hiding…or I will nominate a deputy on your behalf and you will go into hiding."

"What!"

"The choices are clear. I have made a horrible mistake leaving the jinchuuriki actually exposed to the Akatsuki…a mistake I shall remedy. I wanted to use you as a type of bait so that I could stalk my own prey, but I almost allowed Sasori to gain what he wanted at the cost of your life. It is too dangerous even for someone like you to be out in the world…as that man has probably spent some years preparing to confront you in addition to his normal range of skills. He'd probably developed special ways of dealing you're your sand…as I put together ways of dealing with his best-known weapons. Shortly all the jinchuuriki I know of, save that blasted eight-tail who must be gifted at evasion, will be safe and replaced in their public lives by…acceptable surrogates…."

Gaara had nothing to say. He did wave his arm, expecting a wall of sand to attack this crazy person speaking with him. Nothing happened.

"Stop it. Your chakra is disrupted for a period of time…."

"How?"

"A mild poison refined by Tsunade of the Sannin. I stole a set of her private lab books from Konoha many years ago." The Hokage had had them among his personal papers in his office when Naruto ransacked it. Kabuto, before his well-deserved demise, had further refined Tsunade's formulation…but Gaara didn't need to know that.

"The poison won't last forever. When it wears off, I'm gone…and you've got yourself an enemy, Taro."

"Well, I'd rather avoid that last bit. Why don't I let you observe a few things? You can make up your own mind about how to assist with the Akatsuki. If you have a well-informed third option, I am not averse to letting you help."

Gaara nodded.

Naruto felt a bit of pride. He'd tried and tried to think of a way to force Gaara and the Suna forces to help against the Akatsuki. It never worked in the mental wargames he played…but this did. He forced Gaara off the field…and the young Kazekage would do anything to return to the war.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Sasori finished his report to the Leader and the other members. Few of them understood the problem with another destroyed ring. The technique of the Demon Sealing Statue was a secret to almost everyone, even many of the main Akatsuki members. Orochimaru's betrayal still guided many security decisions in the organization.

The Leader understood the problem with the missing rings. Beyond him, the dope Tobi – hiding a vicious Uchiha Madara – understood even better.

"That is…disappointing," the Leader said. "Inform us why you left the One Tail behind? It has set our plans back…."

"I understand, Leader. But I needed a bone to throw to a rabid dog…."

"Certainly you, Sasori, could have handled this ninja," Hidan said in an almost respectful tone of voice.

"He had just disabled my most powerful human puppet. With that puppet I could have used the magnetic sands to restrain the One Tail – as iron sand can beat the traditional sand he could call upon – and provide for a safe escape route. Without it, I had to give the Nine Tails a reason to remain behind while I fled…."

"No one's that strong," Hidan said, far less respectful this time. "Send me. Send Kakuzu. We're not afraid of a damned thing."

"Tobi thinks Sasori is the best." The odd little muppet seemed to point an accusing finger at Hidan.

"Well, Jashin thinks Tobi would be a good offering. Shall I come to the cavern you're in right now and give you to my Lord God?"

"Tobi thinks Hidan is a bad ninja…." With that, Tobi squeezed his hand…and a hundred kilometers away Hidan's throat was crushed.

"…and now Hidan is off with Jashin."

The Leader shook his head at 'Tobi' but said nothing. Over the years, 'Tobi' had killed three Akatsuki who annoyed him. It made recruiting rather difficult once a few stories got out. Evil ninja of a certain caliber tended to trade stories rather than exchange blows when the occasionally got together to drink and gossip. Once Gogo of the Claw and Hiro Takeda from Tea Country mysteriously died…rumors got out about the last 'clients' each of them had worked for. People stopped responding to queries from a plant headed man formerly of Grass Country.

If Hidan's death got out – or if Hidan were missed by outsiders – it would hard to refill the gaps in the organization. They had no swordsman of Kisame's caliber now even years after his death; they had a powerful Uchiha in Madara but they didn't have anyone with such a public reputation as Itachi. Now, Deidara and Hidan were dead…both killed by Akatsuki members. Konan, Zetsu, Kakuzu, Madara, Pain, and Sasori were all that remained.

The unstoppable plan Madara had presented all those years ago to serve Pain's goals – world peace enforced at the edge of a kunai – had ground to a halt. It was no longer unstoppable.

Some days Pain wondered whether it was a mistake to have gone with Madara's plan. There were days when Pain wondered if that bastard Uchiha cared for anything other than the Nine-Tailed Fox. He seemed bored when the others were discussed, but the hunt for Uzumaki Naruto always got 'Tobi' interested.

Kakuzu finally broke the awkward silence. "Deal with Tobi later, Leader. For now, I wish to discuss my former homeland, Hidden Waterfall. We've assembled the mercenaries there. We're paying them now from our treasuries but we're not getting any value from them. I propose to journey there to…train them."

Leader listened and then nodded. "An excellent proposal. With the increasing difficulty of sealing the bijuu we may need to fall back to a less desirable plan. Unleash hell on the world and then offer 'protection.' We can bankrupt the Elemental Nations, send them into poverty, and destroy their ability to wage war forever. The caveat is that we won't have the ultimate weapon in reserve as a threat, however…."

Tobi started up again. "Tobi thinks the bijuu are pretty. Tobi thinks Akatsuki should have the bijuu, so much pretty chakra."

"Thank you, Tobi," Leader said. "But we've delayed matters for a decade already. It is time to begin. We'll train the mercenaries and harden them, equip them with chakra armor and the rest. Then the other members can work on acquiring the bijuu. It is foolish to hold off on both parts of the plan just to acquire the jinchuuriki."

Tobi looked agitated, but said nothing further.

"Kakuzu will go…as will I…."

"And Tobi!"

"And Tobi. Sasori will begin putting out feelers to recruit more senior members. Zetsu will take up surveillance on the One Tail. We had to release him once; I would be sure we can reacquire him on demand. When we return from Waterfall we will reassign teams and track down the bijuu quickly…."

"What about the rings?" Konan quietly asked. Even though Leader hadn't said anything to her, she knew what her task was – to keep an eye on Madara's plots and plans.

"We will need to redesign the jutsu. The rings speed up the technique and allow several persons to be involved. There are alternative methods…slower methods…that we could use. I will think on it."

Leader stopped talking and looked at the ghostly images in front of him. Fatigue was setting in amongst his troops. "Dismissed."

The images faded out. Pain wondered again if he should get rid of all this…and return to his original plan. Have Konan and the Six Paths of Pain perform the devastation needed to affect peace.

Mercenaries and money, levels and stages and plots…blah, it was all too convoluted. Peace through hellish, unrelenting war: that was a contradiction Pain could understand.  
Beast Realm could summon hellish animals until the shinigami ate everyone's soul. God Realm…well, that path could do most anything. The other paths could lay waste to a country each.

It was an…alternative plan. Perhaps he'd be able to speak with Konan about it soon. Madara was getting increasingly unstable. If Uchiha Madara had to die for Pain's plan to work…well, Pain could find a way to kill Madara this time.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Jiraiya, Godaime Hokage, took the unusual step of leading the small force himself. His spy network had let him know of Gaara's kidnapping – and he had mobilized the force within hours. He'd had to reassign several missions and recall a few people only a couple of hours outside of Hidden Leaf.

The small expeditionary force had himself, seven jounin, and four chuunin in it. Tsunade, along with the Sandaime, were taking care of things back in Hidden Leaf. (One of Jiraiya's first acts was to recall Tsunade, pay off her gambling debts, and install her in the hospital to remedy the various turf wars and training debacles they had going on there. The Slug Sannin hadn't been happy…but she had returned in exchange for the debt forgiveness.)

The problem was that the Hokage and his force arrived in Suna about the same time when a strange looking ninja helped Gaara off a medical litter held up by Shadow Clones and escorted him to the gate.

"Kazekage?" Jiraiya said.

An extra pale young man turned around and nodded his head. "Lord Hokage, what brought you here?"

"I thought our ally had a problem," the Hokage said.

"Our alliance is strained at best. The reparations Hidden Leaf demanded after the invasion have destroyed our economy to this day. Then this…. Don't tell me you had a spy in my village."

Jiraiya almost took a step back at Gaara's vehemence. "I won't."

"You're here," Gaara said. "You might as well come in. Do you wish to attend, Taro?"

That got Jiraiya's attention. The small young man didn't look anything like that massive 'Taro' puppet he'd fought and 'killed' all those years ago. Was this what his godson looked like? It was possible to see a bit of Minato in this young man…maybe.

"I will stay for a moment to ensure you're well situated, Lord Kazekage."

Jiraiya began to fling out questions immediately, but Gaara waved them away. He walked away, into the village, in silence.

Five minutes later the group was sealed in the Kazekage's office. Gaara nodded at Jiraiya and the older ninja let loose.

"What the hell happened? My…source said he'd spotted Sasori. And then I get here and you're back."

Gaara frowned. "Sasori was here. I was kidnapped. This ninja, Taro, apparently has a better spy network as he arrived to rescue me more than a day ago."

Jiraiya stared at the tallish, blonde ninja. "You. You were the puppeteer who kept me prisoner all those months?"

Naruto just nodded.

"The Sandaime Hokage told me your real name. You kept asking me about Uzumaki Naruto…about why I never helped him when he was younger…and you are Uzumaki Naruto."

Naruto shrugged and did not bother to correct the man about his proper family name. "Old man, don't make me regret sparing your life. You were useful to spread the story of how you'd killed Taro, my main puppet identity at the time. But now…now you're just annoying."

"If it means anything…I'm sorry. The Sandaime is sorry. He would like nothing more than to speak with you, Naruto…."

Naruto tilted his head and then sighed. "We have time for pleasantries later. We must discuss what role, if any, that Hidden Leaf will have in the upcoming operation."

Throw out a tantalizing, confusing piece of intel…and the sucker bites.

"Catch me up, you're talking about Step Seven and I don't know what Step One is yet," the Hokage said.

Gaara smiled. "I think he meant to make you feel stupid, Lord Hokage. He is talking about following a lead that might avail us some intelligence on the Akatsuki."

"I'm listening…and interested."

"I'm unsure whether you're trustworthy, to be honest," Naruto said. "But, if Gaara…."

"Just tell him," the Kazekage said.

"I have some limited information on a possible Akatsuki base. It appears that they or a large mass of unconnected mercenaries have taken over Hidden Waterfall…."

"Oh, no," Jiraiya said. "It was a tiny village, but it had some truly beautiful women."

Naruto's lips pursed in aggravation. "Gaara and I have been discussing the best way to place Hidden Waterfall under observation. I know a bit about some of their other members, but what I've heard about two of them leave me very nervous."

"Who? Itachi. I could kill Itachi," Jiraiya boasted.

"Your information is old, Toad Sannin. I have made Itachi my newest prisoner…just like you once were."

"I demand you release him to me, to Hidden Leaf. He is a traitor…."

Naruto laughed for a brief moment. A mocking laugh. "Bullshit. Ask the other Old Man. What he did, he did with full sanction. Besides, he's of more value to me as he is than anything you could offer in exchange."

Jiraiya settled back down into his uncomfortable chair.

"Then who? Why observe Hidden Waterfall…why not storm it with an army from Leaf and Sand, kill them all?"

The Hokage had gotten more ruthless as he'd aged…but he was still vastly uninformed.

"Well, won't that be amusing," Gaara said. "If Naruto's information is correct, then there are a few ninja possibly at Hidden Waterfall who are an entire magnitude more powerful than anyone in this room."

"Bah," Jiraiya said.

Naruto waved him quiet. "Could you have battled the Shodai Hokage and not lost? One of the reputed Akatsuki did just that…and another has reputedly slain Salamander Hanzo, the man who you and your two teammates couldn't best at your prime."

"Hanzo's dead?"

"This is going to be a long meeting, isn't it?" Gaara asked. "I need to eat."

In truth, the Gaara puppet required no food at all. But the Shadow Clone running the puppet decided to give Gaara a deep cover. The real Gaara was unhappily watching this conversation from a protected bunker. His comments kept the Shadow Clone running the conversation, from Gaara's end, correctly.

The jinchuuriki was rather upset about the arrangement…but he was far less vehement than the Two Tail and the Seven Tail. Naruto had trouble keeping enough Shadow Clones nearby to keep those puppets functioning. Naruto had long possessed bases near to each known jinchuuriki so it hadn't taken much time to arrange the kidnapping operations…but keeping things together was a different story.

Naruto, as he refrained from injuring Jiraiya out of anger for the man's continuing arrogance, knew he needed to deal with Akatsuki quickly. Keeping seven different jinchuuriki confined against their will was not easy…and it wouldn't last for long.

Naruto tamped down his instincts just to go and deal with Hidden Waterfall himself. He was powerful, it was true, but he knew he needed some sort of ally to assist him. He had no idea what this Pain and Madara were truly capable of.

He would have to trust Jiraiya at some point if he wanted to be free of this plague following him around…and he would need to release the other jinchuuriki soon, as well, least one or more of them figure out a way to escape…and cause some real havoc.

A/N: In this AU, there is a very good reason that Grass Country expels S-ranked ninja. They really are crazy, most of them. The more powerful, the crazier they get. Pain, at least, has had Konan to keep him somewhat grounded…compared to Madara. Thankfully Naruto's neuroses haven't manifested like Sasori's or Madara's. More to come.


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter 23

A/N: Apparently some people had trouble with Tobi quickly, simply killing Hidan. Let me say this: I don't expect someone as paranoid as Madara to allow anyone into his organization without knowing exactly what they are capable of…and how to kill them should they betray them. If Madara wants to kill an Akatsuki, he can kill an Akatsuki. Plus, this Madara is likely more unhinged than the canon version. Naruto, after all, needs a really strong opponent for his final battle.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Naruto had argued strenuously against bringing all of Jiraiya's ninja plus some from Suna. "We're spying. Three, four people tops."

One of the haughty Konoha ninja – none of whom knew who Naruto was – said, "It's for Lord Jiraiya's protection."

So…this travesty had spent more than a full day organizing itself…and then moved at half the speed Naruto could by himself. He began to get a sense of what having allies could mean…it had been much better to have students.

With a four man cell, Naruto had devastated an entire country over the course of a few months and, with a two man cell, lured out Orochimaru and killed him and banished many of his snake summons away. After Orochimaru's death, Naruto and Number Three had spent a bit of time lacing poisoned water sources with the poison neutralizer. With just four good ninja, he could cause – and eventually remediate – devastation.

With 20 they moved like a snail.

The group had made a camp – a camp! on a recon mission, what folly – four miles into the border of Hidden Waterfall. Now, nearly three days after Naruto volunteered the information, a team of almost 20 ninja were spying…on not much at all. Hidden Waterfall was actually the most hidden of any ninja village, relying on a cave system with protected secret entrances.

Jiraiya and two of his jounin were surveying the southern portion of the hill that had the main entrance hidden behind a beautiful waterfall. 'Gaara' and some of his ninja were monitoring the north eastern portion – along with the best view of the falls. Naruto…and some Leaf 'volunteers,' none of whom Naruto wanted…were sitting on the north western portion.

In the past three hours only a small handful of people had disappeared into the waterfall that was rumored to obscure the village.

Then Naruto twisted to look at what another Konoha ninja was pointing at. A Leaf ninja with Jiraiya's group was sneaking out from the protected forest area the kilometer or so from the base of the hill that contained Hidden Waterfall's caverns.

"What is Jiraiya thinking?" Naruto asked. He got no response.

But, as he watched, he saw Jiraiya's response. The Godaime Hokage ran after the ninja and tried to return him to the protected cover. That just made the rogue ninja run faster. Soon both were climbing the stony face of the hill.

"This man is a Sannin and the Hokage and he couldn't think of a sneakier way to stop an errant ninja…." Naruto had more to say, but the explosion at the top of the hill stopped him.

With a look of horror, the solid stone top of the mountain, at least a third of it, cracked and collapsed onto the caverns underneath. Naruto saw…a flying toad with a white haired man clutching onto it. At least Jiraiya had escaped. But unless that collapse had killed or injured a great many of the ninja inside, this was about to get ugly.

Like what happened to a dull-minded child poking at a wasp nest with a stick.

Whoever wasn't dead inside would soon be streaming outside to deal with the problem. And, if Naruto's intelligence was right, there were some powerful mercenary ninja inside. Jounins from villages all over the Elemental Countries; powerful fighters from village-less clans; and plenty of murdering bastards freed from every prison imaginable.

Individually Naruto could best any or all of them…but in a quantity of several hundred or a few thousand, that was a different story. Even the Flowing Red Death – his most prized and secret technique – had scaled to kill only three hundred at a time. He did use chakra cables to control them, but each Red Death puppet clone required more than ten individual chakra strings to control it.

He wouldn't easily be able to deal with that many by himself…. A real Gaara could kill hundreds with the right sand technique, but the 'Gaara' sitting across the way was much less powerful.

"We need to leave now," Naruto said to the Leaf nins performing surveillance with him (or was it 'on' him).

"Not until we know Jiraiya-sama is safe. You can leave if you're scared, little…."

Another unfinished statement.

It wasn't an army that appeared on the field. Now, it was a slight, pale woman with her hair tied up…wearing a black cloak with red clouds. And a little ninja wearing a bizarre orange mask. And another ninja…oh, right, Itachi had identified him as Kakuzu.

This expedition was doomed then.

Three Akatsuki. One Immortal, Uchiha Madara, and someone with the Rin'negan – which was still mostly a mystery even after years of trying to learn of its effects.

The woman surveyed the destroyed mountain and then seemed to track the different locations where Konoha ninja and Suna ninja were stationed.

A few seconds later, she did some unusual handsigns and slammed her hand into the ground. Five more ninja were now standing around the girl.

Naruto had seen many things in his time…but he had never seen a ninja summon another ninja.

He took a second to create a few dozen Kage Bunshin, which immediately ran away from Naruto. They encircled the half destroyed hill within a few minutes – while the orange masked ninja and one of the dark haired summoned ninja spoke – and henged into other things, rocks, branches, and the like.

When Naruto fled he still wanted to observe what happened. Once his spies were in place…and the Akatsuki had made up their minds, Naruto gave one last warning – "Retreat!" – and then shunshined away.

Naruto was worried about Jiraiya, as the man was a powerful ninja…but the jounin he'd brought along hadn't impressed Naruto. The real Gaara would be just fine, even if the puppet version of him was in danger.

Naruto thought he was in the clear…until he felt something powerful shunshin behind him…he leapt and avoided a kunai to the spine.

The orange masked freak – Itachi said this was Uchiha Madara's disguise – was fast and not given to long speeches. A true ninja.

Naruto heard something like an explosion in the distance. He hoped the Konoha nin had finally had the sense to flee.

Naruto banished a few hundred micropuppets at Uchiha Madara. The first few landed, but the others passed right through. That was some kind of ultimate defense – phasing out of reality.

Naruto shunshined again and tumbled away from his landing spot. Again. He hoped that the miniscule amount of chakra poison…and one or more micropuppets' worth of optic nerve poison…had stalled Uchiha Madara.

He took a moment to breathe, to calm down. He hadn't felt this kind of terror even when he killed Orochimaru with his puppets. Why did this feel so different? Was being exposed like this worth it…he could do just as much running a puppet again from the safety of a bunker.

He felt a shunshin…slower and more wasteful…and somersaulted forward. As he was upside down, he shunshined again and rolled to the ground in his new location.

That damned Madara was stalking him now.

Naruto dropped a few slips of paper and then waited to feel the incoming shunshin. When he felt the chakra – memorizing it so he could always identify Madara in the future by chakra feel alone – he rolled again, this time to the left and shunshined. As he disappeared, the chakra string connecting Naruto to the papers was severed (intentionally). Just as Madara materialized, the papers beneath and to his sides released their contents. An explosive gas, a poison gas carrying even more deadly on this vapors. Madara avoided the physical blast, but the micropuppets that remained behind reported Madara began to cough.

That was good to know. Excellent, in fact. The ninja could very well be impervious to physical or chakra attacks if he could see them coming…but even he needed to breathe.

That was the first bit of good news Naruto had received since returning 'Gaara' to Hidden Sand.

Naruto kept shunshinning his way on a bizarre path out of Waterfall. He monitored the micropuppets surrounding Madara, but was unable to harm him again.

He remained intangible for the moment, but he wasn't pursuing. Instead he seemed to be wheezing rather fiercely.

The poison was a nuisance that any med nin could neutralize…but the spores Naruto had used were from a plant native to Grass Country…they began to break down in the presence of liquid. Some farmers or ranchers feared natural anthrax in their country; farmers in Grass Country feared the Spined Purple Fern above all else.

As the spores took dissolved in the liquid inside Madara's lungs, each one released a trio of toxic chemicals which aided the spore's growth. Within a few hours, the spore would be a full fledged mold. Within two days, the mold would have grown enough to fill a lung.

There was a rather simple way to kill the spores however. If Madara thought to pump steam down his throat, it would kill the spores within seconds (but not the mold). But it would likely also sear the inside of his lungs and throat, killing him.

Which was worse? The disease or its cure? And would Madara even realize this solution before it was too late to solve anything without needing new lungs or a replacement of all his internal organs?

Naruto made it to border, the agreed upon rendevouz location, and waited. It would be a long wait. Naruto gave up after two hours and continued on a zigzagging path to keep clear of Madara or his cronies.

As he continued his escape, he wondered what had happened to make that portion of the hill collapse and, second, how to make use of this new knowledge about Uchiha Madara. Would the paranoid little man start wearing a rebreather under his mask?

Naruto didn't kid himself that a lungful of mold would be enough to kill someone like Madara. No, he'd have a medic nin who wouldn't be able to kill the mold…but who could remove the infected lung entirely. This wouldn't be fatal, but it would be painful.

Naruto needed to have something or other as a backup. But…to neutralize Madara, Naruto didn't necessarily need to kill him, did he?

For the first time since Naruto had heard the name Uchiha Madara, he was able to smile. There might be a solution to this part of the problem. Maybe.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Itachi looked up, pointlessly, when he heard stone on stone. His captor, Naruto, had returned.

Life as a blinded, useless hulk did not agree with Itachi in the slightest…but it was better than death.

He would answer Naruto's questions and get the boy to leave. That ninja bothered him and there was nothing else Itachi could do to relieve his irritation.

"You've been holding out on me, Uchiha scum."

The tone of voice was nothing like his previous interactions with Naruto.

"What do you mean?"

"How about the importance of the Akatsuki rings?"

Itachi shrugged. "They're used in a ritual of some sort. I never participated in one, so it was all theoretical to me."

"Bullshit. You wouldn't have put something like that on your finger without having a very good idea of what it did. I don't buy this, 'I'm an innocent Uchiha' business for a moment."

"Why are you so agitated?"

Itachi did not care to discuss what little he knew of the rings…and what larger body of suspicions he had about them. He still hoped that Akatsuki would capture and kill Naruto through the ritual…he still held out a small sliver of hope that one of his compatriots or even an ANBU squad from Konoha would find him. Being in a prison with others would be better than this solitary existence. Anything would be better.

"I finally…met this Uchiha Madara. You didn't tell me anything useful about him. He is beyond formidable."

"Far beyond Sasori, right? As I said all those years ago."

"Perhaps. He has an excellent defense…but I know little still about his attacks. Why don't you fill me in?"

"He has things beyond my capabilities. I do know he possesses the Mangekyo Sharingan…but I do not know what he has uncovered about it. He was the one who taught me how to access my basic abilities. I am sure he kept much to himself."

That wasn't entirely the truth…but this ninja would take what he was given and leave.

"There were some details you left out about this Leader character. He can summon himself…or copies of himself…or human puppets?"

Itachi shrugged. As much as he knew about Madara, he knew almost nothing about the Leader…only that the Leader in single combat had fallen to Madara. Madara had never said what he'd done to bring the other powerful ninja to heel.

"I do not know anything about Leader's abilities."

"Fine. Let's play this game you've starved a bit. Your water tap stays on…but no one will bring you food until I return in a week. We'll see if hunger loosens your tongue, Itachi."

Naruto left the room before Itachi could even respond.

When he shouted after his captor, he heard only footsteps receding.

It would be a hungry week. Itachi had done the right thing in the negotiation, but Naruto was playing by a different set of rules.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Uchiha Madara, dressed as a halfwit named Tobi, walked through the devastation inside the caverns of Hidden Waterfall.

He killed any man wounded too much to be of further use to him. Mercenaries could be hired for a few thousand ryo; jounin-ranked missing nin for ten thousand a month; hiring a new crop would be expensive but better than having to pay a bunch of cripples.

Weakness. If there was one thing he couldn't abide…it was weakness. As Mizukage, he had implemented the Academy's training regimen. Students paired together from the moment they entered the Academy…who, four years later, were forced to face off in a fight to the death.

That was motivation.

The problem – the reason he was not feeding a paralytic to the Nine Tail carrier and keeping him imprisoned until Pain solved the extraction procedure problem – was because he felt weak right now.

That bastard…had done something to him. With his time/space ninjutsu, he should be invulnerable…but that rabid child had still managed to land an attack…several attacks, if Madara was being honest with himself.

Tobi jumped up and snapped another mercenary's neck under his feet.

Something was happening inside his body. He'd need to find a good med nin soon to figure out what was happening. He'd been hit by small pellets at one point…and was dosed with some type of powder.

His body felt weaker. His muscles were beginning to feel tired.

He was Uchiha Madara. He was an immortal. This…punk was always slated to die…but now Madara would ensure it was unusually painful.

Madara had not been wounded in battle in many decades, not since the last year of his reign as Mizukage. He had bored of the position and the pissant village he led…and he got sloppy. An assassin from Kumo managed to land a single attack – before the water in his body vaporized and he exploded outwards everywhere.

He wasn't overly fond of pain or illness…or of any type of weakness.

Madara spotted one of Pain's 'bodies' and jumped toward him, looking foolish and carefree, trying to keep from coughing.

"Tobi got to kill three people." He'd dealt with the jinchuuriki's spying compatriots before pursuing the Nine Tail.

"Stop it with the stupid 'Tobi this' and 'Tobi that.' What do you want?"

"The Nine Tail in a prison cell awaiting the new extraction technique you promised."

"I am less convinced that we need this demonic amalgamation. We need an unconquerable army," Pain said.

Tobi jumped up and down for anyone watching him, but his voice was pure Madara. "No, we need this weapon. We also need to ensure that no Hidden Village has a jinchuuriki. Our 'regular members' are strong…but the Nine Tail likely killed Kisame and Itachi by himself…and that was three years ago. We will not be able to assemble an army of S-rank ninja. We need the Hidden Villages weak enough to conquer. Our army would be worth less than warm spit if one of these damned jinchuuriki showed up and slaughtered them. You said it yourself years ago, Pain."

"I know. But I am reassessing. The loss of the rings…. It would take us another decade or longer to reforge the statue and the rings. There are other techniques we could use, but they would probably fail against the Seven Tail and its betters. The King of Hell technique had the advantage of using the power of the already captured bijuu to help harvest the next ones. That's the reason we need to harvest the One-, Two-, or Three-Tail before attempting anything harder. You know all this. Why are you pushing…it was always meant to be a tool of last resort. We would be able to use it, at most, once. After all, we can't enforce peace on a bunch of dead people."

'Tobi' was quiet for a moment. "I defeated three of your 'bodies' in our little spar. That was before your glorious little battle with Hanzo. I was stronger then…and I'm stronger now. That's the reason I'm in charge here. We will capture the power of the bijuu. You will make this happen. Strength is the only thing that will allow us to succeed."

The Pain body just shook his head. It wasn't acceptance or agreement, but it signaled no more argument.

"What did you think of the Nine Tail?" Pain asked.

"Mediocre skills at best. But he managed to set a couple of interesting traps with little notice. He'll have to be captured with the element of surprise on our side."

"An interesting assessment. I, however, am more interested in how Sasori assessed him. An unknown type of power. From the 'volunteer,' we know he is some type of puppeteer…."

"Puppets are nothing. Useless."

Pain just smiled. "We shall see, Madara. We shall see."

"I care not for opinions. I want results."

Madara leapt away before he lost control of his need to cough. A hundred meters away, he allowed his body the luxury of a cough. The deep, nasty rattling sound unnerved the ancient ninja.

The Nine Tail would feel pain…pain for days for this affliction.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Naruto took a few days before returning to Hidden Sand. He thought he had lost Uchiha Madara, but he was paranoid enough to keep to an unusual path.

When he arrived he found 'Gaara' in good condition. He also found Jiraiya almost ready to return to Hidden Leaf with his arm in a sling. Apparently he'd busted his hip in the whole debacle.

Naruto took the time to get Jiraiya by himself before asking a few hard questions.

"What the fuck happened?" asked Naruto in his calmest, most dangerous tone of voice.

"The man I followed – the ninja I tried to stop – had been sent by my village on a suicide mission. He was to kill me…."

Naruto cupped his head in his hand. "Why am I not surprised?"

Jiraiya at least sounded anguished about this realization: that a faction in his home hated him enough to attempt a clumsy assassination.

"When he was a quarter up the mountain I was nearly able to stop him when I took a second to summon a large toad. His tongue shot out and wrapped around the ninja. When Gama turned him around the ninja was smirking. He couldn't make handseals, but the self-sacrificing technique he was about to use didn't need them. I climbed on Gama, left the ninja there, and…well, you saw what happened."

It took a few seconds to determine that Jiraiya actually believed the story he was telling. A suicide technique strong enough to damage a large hill.

"What's the technique?" Naruto asked.

"Something that the Root program dreamed up. Captured agents were supposed to kill themselves and their captors rather than submit to questioning. The bastard in charge of it…."

"Danzo," Naruto said. "Don't forget I stole the Hokage's files years ago. I know more of Konoha's dirty secrets than you do."

Jiraiya scoffed at that, but continued his explanation. "The bastard, Danzo, worked out a way to open the Eighth Heavenly Gate without needing to open the other seven. All that chakra flooding the body without using the other gates…it apparently causes someone to explode, enough to take out a block of buildings…or a quarter of a mountain."

"Why is he still alive if he's teaching forbidden techniques like that? How many people did he kill just to figure this out? The Snake Sannin got driven out for his depraved experiments…."

"It's political," Jiraiya said.

"Well, what are you going to do now? Somehow this 'political opponent' got an agent close enough to kill you…while the whole thing was likely to be blamed on a failed mission."

"I don't know. I'll speak with Sarutobi…."

Naruto shook his head. "Whatever you decide, you're likely to incite a civil war. It won't matter what advice you get or how you act. Your returning alive to Konoha…will be the trigger."

"I know."

Naruto laughed. "Be sure to tell the Old Man…tell him I said 'hello.'"

"You could do it yourself."

"I'm a bit busy right now." Saying that to a man about to partake of a civil war was a bit high handed, but it was true. Naruto hopped away and left Suna a few minutes later.

Jiraiya looked at the departing young ninja and wondered if Sarutobi was right. This boy was missing a leg? Jiraiya couldn't tell.

His mind quickly put the matter out mind. There was too much already going on: 25% smut, 25% anger, 25% planning, and 25% fear for what was about to happen in his home.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Naruto didn't have much time left. He was in full countdown actually. The Akatsuki were riled up; 'Gaara' might have to fight again, but the puppet using wind techniques could only achieve maybe 20% of what the real Gaara could. That excluded its lack of being able to assume a demonic form.

It wouldn't be long before his puppets were found out for what they were. It was only a question of whether a Hidden Village would figure it out first…or one of the protected jinchuuriki managed to escape their confinement.

Naruto needed to get Sasori alone. He was a powerful ninja, but he'd be nothing compared to this Pain and the Uchiha.

Then he could focus on Madara. He seemed the more problematic of the final pair: but Naruto had some valuable insights about him while he still knew nothing directly about Pain. Madara's time-space jutsu – his phasing out of danger – was formidable but it had flaws, flaws which Naruto could exploit given the right conditions.

Still…

Sasori first. As payment for the horror committed on Number Two.

Puppeteer versus puppeteer. He wanted to see how good his techniques really were against someone who'd been studying for decades. Perhaps they'd be evenly matched, but Naruto doubted it.

And Naruto refused to fight fairly.

He entered a safe house in Tea Country and fell asleep. Minutes later he was dreaming of an epic battle with Sasori.

Then the dream changed. Even his unconscious mind knew that direct confrontation was a bit stupid. The images from then on were mixed and confusing.

Naruto tossed and slept badly.


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter 24

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Jiraiya left his few surviving jounin in a village fifteen kilometers from Hidden Leaf. Out of the platoon he took with him, only three had survived…and not even the strongest of the group, either.

Jiraiya stopped thinking about the dead…and thought about the future, which was almost as depressing. The Hokage proceeded to avoid all the patrols and sneak over the walls and into the village that had just tried to kill him.

He checked on Sarutobi. The man he'd left in charge in his stead was still alive, reading Icha Icha in the Hokage Tower, and beginning to look a bit nervous that he might have to reassume the Hokage title yet again. Jiraiya, after all, had been expected back four days earlier.

The day was turning to night.

It was time to see how far the rot known as Root had spread. Jiraiya found a quiet training ground, empty until the next morning, and did a mass summoning. Every small to medium size toad Jiraiya knew of appeared in a massive cloud.

Gamatatsu, now a medium size toad, looked around and then spotted Jiraiya. "Why do you need all of us, pops?"

"A mission dire and grave," Jiraiya said without a lick of humor in his voice. The confused toads quieted down.

"I will give each of you several seals. When it finally gets dark out, I need you to sneak…"

"I like to sneak," a young toad murmured.

"Thank you, Gamasuchi. But, the instructions aren't finished. You need to place one of these paper seals on the forehead of every ANBU…and jounin in the village." That last order pained Jiraiya, but he had no idea how long Root had been planting its fanatics in the regular ninja population – or if he needed to sequester the chuunin or even genin of the village, too.

"Why?" Jiraiya didn't see who asked the question.

"A faction of the Hidden Leaf tried to assassinate me while I was on a mission…and now I must determine who can be trusted and who are the traitors."

The toads were surprisingly quiet. More than one was confused.

"Yes, I will reward each one of you…if you complete this successfully."

"What about the Old Man, your sensei?" That was from Gamakichi.

"No, him I trust above all others."

"And Tsunade?"

"No, don't worry about her. I wouldn't want you guys getting in trouble with the slugs either."

"You got it, boss," Gamatatsu said. Jiraiya then handed out the seals written on paper. There were far fewer than the total number of ANBU and jounin registered in the village…but many of those high level folks would be on missions. There should only be a few dozen in the village right now.

"Thank you." Jiraiya leapt away. He was going to deal with Danzo personally.

Gamakichi opened his mouth to get everyone organized, but then closed it again. "Hey, we never asked what these things did, did we?"

"I hope it's nothing too bad, bro," Gamatatsu replied.

"Me, too."

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

"It's just too much of a coincidence," Naruto said…for the fifth time.

He was in Tea Country…trying to find Sasori. Then he discovered, through one of his spy outposts, that Sasori was in Tea Country on some type of business.

It smelled like a well-baited trap…but it was so rich an opportunity Naruto knew he couldn't pass on it. He knew he was being paranoid. No one knew Naruto was in Tea Country right now…but it still felt a bit too convenient.

It wasn't something Naruto could pass up.

Naruto took an hour to select the items and tricks he would be taking with him into battle.

This would be his first time really battling a puppet master. Neutralizing the Third Kazekage hadn't really counted…now Sasori would probably know of Naruto's likely attack and would have had time to prepare.

But, for the sake of his dead student, Number Two, Naruto could do no less than avenge her death.

He began to move toward the exit…then he stopped. This really was too obvious. Sasori might really be on business here, but what if he were used by Pain or Madara to weaken and draw Naruto out. He was seeing plots in the shadows, he realized, but such vigilance had saved his life before.

"If it's Madara…yes, that might do very well." Poisons of the airborne variety apparently worked, but Naruto had stumbled upon an idea that might work even better.

It took a quick trip into River Country – a delay of several hours – before Naruto returned fully prepared to take on Sasori…and whoever else might be involved.

The tea warehouse manager – one of his oldest puppet identities – had been able to keep a watchful eye on Sasori as the man waited briefly on the docks from the river traffic. He lost track of the ninja for a few hours, but eventually Sasori returned to the docks.

When Sasori left, a Shadow Clone that helped to manage the tea warehouse manager dispelled itself and Naruto adjusted his course. He had not wanted to start something with Sasori inside a civilian village. That was beyond foolhardy…for the inevitable collateral damage it would cause.

Seven kilometers outside the largest trading village, Sasori stopped. That chakra…it was what the Nine Tail felt like.

The little ninja had spies of his own. How…quaint. The hunter – Sasori – was being hunted by another puppet master.

"What are you waiting for, little Uzumaki?"

"For the right moment." Naruto's voice came from nowhere in particular…a voice throwing technique pioneered by puppeteers in centuries past. Figures that a stupid little ninja like Uzumaki would learn such a trick.

Inside his battle puppet, Sasori began to prepare. He had all of his most offensive puppets with him. But…perhaps it was best to start with total devastation. The Dance of the 100 Puppets was his most powerful technique. Nothing that this Naruto possessed would be able to overwhelm it.

As soon as Naruto showed himself, Sasori would prove to Naruto that he was indestructible.

"I can spare you twenty minutes. A master class in puppeteering before you die," Sasori said.

A few hundred ninja, all with bright blonde hair, appeared circling Sasori. Clones of some type, obviously. None of them said anything. They just began casting jutsu. Some wind; some fire; some lightning. None used water or earth: the greater defensive elements.

Sasori had never seen clones work like this before. He dodged and weaved and used chakra strings to throw rocks and other debris in the path of the jutsu.

The battle puppet, while dancing and dodging, began revealing hidden compartments. Sealing scrolls fell out; chakra strings lashed out and opened them. Within a minute of the clone attacks, Sasori had his Hundred Man Army ready. Each of these puppets was of a conquered foe, their preserved human bodies now placed into his service.

Sasori had trained for a decade to be able to control all these puppets. It was the most devastating technique he – or any puppeteer – would ever create.

With all his mechanical constructions, he was able to control the hundred. His puppets pivoted and launched senbon, flame thrower attacks, and even some offensive jutsu against the clones arrayed around the field of battle.

Sasori prepared for his next moves – finding that damned Nine Tail – when he noticed something. Every one of the blonde haired clones, every one of them, was still there. A few had been hit…and none had turned into smoke or mud or water.

These weren't any type of clone that Sasori was familiar with.

That was when he noticed all of the clones smiling and making handseals. Sasori used his 100 Puppets to create an impervious shield around his battle puppets. Something strange was going on – was he trapped in genjutsu?

This wasn't real.

No, not real at all. No opponent could replicate himself like this. Clones always had a weakness. Some of these were hit and still moving. One of them had an arm burned off…and it was still smiling.

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For a man with grand political aspirations, Danzo lived a simple life. He had a small house tucked in among where the civilians lived. He had moved in here with his wife when he was a genin. As he climbed the ranks and had the means to move, he never did. His wife had died in childbirth in this house, it was said, and so Danzo never moved, as a memorial to his dead wife and daughter.

He never remarried, either. Instead of a new wife, he married into the ANBU Corps.

Jiraiya hoped that having all the civilian houses nearby wouldn't give Danzo some sort of leverage in this fight.

Danzo wouldn't care who died, so long as he won.

Jiraiya had long told Sarutobi to remove the rogue ANBU trainer. The Root division, disbanded but never truly disbanded, was an affront in a ninja division. The ANBU answered only to the Hokage, in theory, not to their disloyal trainer.

He'd almost convinced his student, the Yondaime Hokage, to kill Danzo. Then he'd worked on Sarutobi once he regained the position.

Of course, upon becoming Hokage, Jiraiya didn't follow his own advice. He had permitted Danzo to live. The man had seemed to have his uses…at the time.

It was a mistake, a nearly fatal one.

One should never become complacent around a deadly snake.

Jiraiya snuck inside the house through a window he unlocked from the outside. Civilian-made structures were ridiculously simple to penetrate; odd that Danzo had never retrofitted it for security reasons.

Jiraiya crawled inside as the sun finally set.

The upstairs was clean, but looked like a civilian house forty years ago did. Even the furniture was the same.

Was this just a decoy home? Did Danzo really live somewhere else? The search lasted ten minutes and turned up nothing.

It was pure luck he stumbled across a hidden doorway – obscure behind a wooden panel in a hall – that opened onto a stairwell leading to a basement.

He followed the steps, slowly, continuously checking for traps. Then when he thought to count the steps he'd followed…he realized he was long past arriving in a basement. He checked for genjutsu, but continued down the steps.

When he landed on solid stone, he wasn't in a basement. He was in a tunnel carved from solid stone at least fifty meters underground.

This was more Danzo's style. A bunker hidden underneath an innocuous home.

It was another thirty meters before Jiraiya arrived at something that looked and felt like it was ninja-designed. A solid steel door covered in arcane seals acid etched into the metal.

Very permanent, very strong.

But the door…was open. Had Danzo or one of his flunkies been waiting for Jiraiya? Was this a booby trap after all?

A voice drifted out from the room behind the open door. "I see that my operatives failed…. Come on in, Jiraiya. This…confrontation has been delayed for quite some time."

Now knowing it was a trap, Jiraiya did the foolish, gallant thing. He pulled the door open and stepped inside.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Naruto had set up a 'base' three kilometers from where his modified puppet clones were ringing in around Sasori.

The ex-Suna puppeteer had just finally realized there was something odd about these clones. They didn't die easily. Indeed, unless Sasori destroyed the randomly placed heart stone inside a clone, it wouldn't die at all. Some of these puppet clones would have to be attacked in the neck, others in the foot. Others still in the wrist or the thigh or the lower gut. Each one, randomly, vulnerable in a different spot.

Naruto was able to watch what Sasori did, as he had a viewer set up to 'see' through the eyes of a puppet clone.

The concerted actions of a 100 Puppets working together was actually quite skilled. Naruto could achieve the same thing with his chakra cables…or by using Shadow Clones…or, well, there were several ways. Sasori had had to butcher his body to accomplish the same thing.

Perhaps this was the value of the Kyuubi in his gut. He couldn't use the red chakra without debilitating pain…but he was able to do things beyond normal human limits when it came to managing puppets. Was that the Kyuubi's unwilling gift?

Sasori danced and danced.

Naruto learned from the 'master's master class.'

The old Scorpion knew more than even the legends reported. But Naruto had developed his skills along different paths.

Sasori's master techniques relied upon stealing the power of others.

Naruto had developed sealing techniques to replicate chakra coils inside his puppets…without requiring a dead ninja's body.

Sasori could make as many puppets as ninja he killed.

Naruto, with his puppet clones, could make as many puppets…as there were bits of rock, metal, or glass nearby.

Sasori's mistakes – which would kill him this day – were fundamental. His puppets looked strong, but were hard to replace once destroyed. His skills, his butchery of his own body, were sacrifices made by an insane ninja attempting a form of immortality. Such a move always had more drawbacks than benefits.

Naruto watched and baited and learned…the limits of Sasori's power.

Naruto had spent years preparing for this day, fearing that Sasori might be stronger than him, his techniques more profound.

Now Naruto understood.

Fear had kept him from pushing the battle, fear over Sasori, Pain, and Madara's possible strengths and invulnerabilities. But he understood the vulnerabilities of two of them. All the studying he'd done…it had been a waste of time.

Learning was one thing…analysis of rumors another…but true experience, knowing the thing itself, was the truth.

Sasori was dead once Naruto had worn out the master and tired of his final performance, his greatest masterclass.

The more Sasori struggled, after all, the more Naruto learned.

It wasn't the big things that were incredible – like how to make a human puppet – but it was the small things. The fine techniques of how his puppets moved…of how he responded to an attack…the details that only a well experienced master could pass onto an apprentice.

Sasori would be the reigning master for a few more minutes.

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The old ninja sat behind a metal desk in his secure bunker. The cot was folded up into the wall. It was a fine space in which to have a conversation…and to have a final battle, if needed.

"I knew only of the one, Danzo. The operative who tried to kill me. Sarutobi should have struck you down once he learned of the suicide technique you created and trained…opening only the Eighth Heavenly Gate. Horrible."

Danzo smiled. "A ninja is a weapon; a technique is but a tool. A suicide technique is valid to win a battle. Sarutobi never understood that.

"Or you…I'm surprised you didn't suspect some of the others among your jounin team. Root rarely sends just one on such a mission. This time, I sent three. One to kill you. Two sent to report back on the success or failure of the operation. None of them knew about the others. It took many years, many, many years, to get so many of our operatives in positions where they were no longer suspected of ties to Root. It nearly worked."

"You and your secrets…."

Danzo shrugged. "And our long-term plans. I had been waiting a very long time for you to lead a mission out of the village, Jiraiya. Sarutobi hadn't done it in years, but you…I knew you would have to leave at some point. Too much wanderlust in your blood."

Jiraiya's posture hadn't relaxed a bit. He might be a clot-headed fool, but he was still a skilled ninja staring at an enemy. "I wonder why my student, the Fourth, didn't kill you. He suspected you of nefarious plots that even the Sandaime didn't. 'ANBU are the personal weapons of the Hokage,' it's said. But you've had your own little brainwashed cult for more than two decades. I shouldn't have let you live for corrupting the ANBU like this."

"Yes, Minato made his dislike clear. Sarutobi always dismissed me, thinking me neutralized because of my infirmity and because of his little laws stripping me of any authority in the ANBU. Feh! As if a law would stop the rebirth of Konoha. But Minato would have been a problem. I suspect I would have died in an accident had the Kyuubi not ended his life – all the better for me."

"You will never be Hokage, you infirm bastard."

That got Danzo to laugh. Jiraiya was just too damned earnest. "I don't need to be Hokage. One of my greatest students will be Hokage after your passing…and he will know the way to restore Konoha to its greatness, with my counsel for as long as I live."

"I guess your lifespan will be short then." Jiraiya began to prepare a technique.

"I'd hold up for a moment, Toad Sage. I hadn't been sure you'd survived, but I had my suspicion…so I prepared. How would my man become Hokage with another Sannin available? With Sarutobi still alive? With Kakashi… You see, you were but one problem in the field. By the end of next week, all problems will be gone."

"What the hell. None of your emotionless assholes could even touch Sarutobi or Tsunade."

"I'll agree about Sarutobi. He remains far stronger than his old age should permit. I think it's guilt keeping him alive now…guilt over the Kyuubi child's disappearance. But, with your death…and Tsunade's…he will be mentally broken. Kakashi is overrated…."

"How will you 'kill' Tsunade? She could crush anyone coming after her…."

"So long as no one sprays her with blood…as one of my operatives did yesterday at the hospital. She's been my guest for just over a day now."

Jiraiya went pale. Her hemophobia was legendary among certain circles. A med nin afraid of blood was more than a decent joke.

"Tell me where she is…now…and I'll give you a swift death."

"My operatives will take care of you."

"Right now, every jounin and ANBU in Hidden Leaf is unconscious. You have no operatives in Hidden Leaf…."

That had the ring of truth to it. For the first time since he'd started this deadly dance, Danzo felt fear. He had backups behind backups…but something like this, if true, rendered most of them moot.

There was still the main trap. That was still in effect.

Danzo took his life in his hand and made his decision.

"She's waiting for you to rescue her, Jiraiya of the Sannin. Her knight on a brilliant white stallion."

"Where?"

Danzo laughed. "Why should I give up my advantage in this discussion…."

Jiraiya moved faster than Danzo could see…and then the pain consumed his mind. One-Armed Danzo, a long-standing insult uttered by his opponents, now had no arms.

"My patience is gone, old man. Speak or I'll introduce you to the inside of a toad's intestines."


	25. Chapter 25

Chapter 25

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Sasori brought his Dance of 100 Puppets to a halt. With his puppets in full, flowing motion, he had managed to wound a great number of the blonde clones…but it seemed only three or four had been dispelled.

While each of his 100 puppets had taken damage, most severe amounts.

Most of the damage was repairable; a few of his human puppets would likely never function correctly again. One poor former Rain ninja was in five pieces and only held together because of chakra strings: he was dogmeat.

There was no rhyme or reason to why those particular clones were fatally wounded, either. No rhyme or reason to how they attacked. Few ninja could damage the reinforced human puppets Sasori created. They moved too quickly, flowing over and around their targets. But…not in this case.

Sasori knew of no technique, puppet or otherwise, that provided these results. And over many long days of discussions with his former Akatsuki partner, Orochimaru, Sasori knew and could recognize thousands of jutsu, even if the Snake Sannin hadn't been quite so forthcoming with the details of how to perform the techniques.

His technique for destroying an army of samurai or a platoon of jounin…had ground to a standstill against a single opponent with an unknown technique. That sent chills through the few parts of the humanity still residing within Sasori.

Had overconfidence done this to him?

He had feared…and continued to fear Chiyo, his grandmother, for her skill. She was as good with her puppets as Sasori was. But an unknown puppeteer with students so weak they could be captured and killed…he had not feared that.

Either the Nine Tails had gotten infinitely better in the years since their confrontation – or this ninja had never shown his students his true skill level. Hence, they'd never revealed it under torture.

Such a conclusion had never occurred to Sasori before now.

Doubt and fear were rather unpleasant…side effects of the human condition. As he still possessed an all-too-human heart, Sasori found himself capable of feeling these emotions. It was…unpleasant.

"Is the class over, master puppeteer?" one of the clones mocked.

"I'm just improvising an appropriate conclusion. Something truly artistic."

With that the clones, en masse, dispelled. The Nine Tail seemed to have given up.

It wasn't possible, though. The Nine Tail would want revenge. Sasori had found and killed the female student years ago…and the hunter nin student just a few months earlier. Pity the bastard had refused to talk before dying…but Sasori expected more than this.

Still, Sasori didn't look askance at a gift.

He began to run, to run for his life. This opponent was too strange, too strong for even Sasori's most prized technique.

He didn't even think of fleeing back to the village, even though that might have saved him. He ran toward the north, on the shortest path back to Rain Country.

That was his mistake.

His failure.

There was someone waiting to the north preparing to show Sasori his version of a 'master class.'

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A broken Danzo finally revealed where Tsunade was hidden. "Root has a front company called Akira Importing. The basement of its warehouse…that's where she is."

Forgetting himself for a moment – not remembering to keep his interrogation subject alive for further questioning – Jiraiya summoned a medium sized toad.

The hungry toad – an odd one who had developed a taste for human flesh – slurped up Danzo when Jiraiya offered up the armless ninja.

"Sit here until your chakra runs out, Gamarantu, or until your gut stops shrieking."

As he bounded from Danzo's underground bunker, he heard shrieks of pain and anger. Toad stomachs digested very slowly, after all. Danzo would feel pain for hours before he died.

It took Jiraiya less than three minutes to find the correct warehouse. It was silent, as all the buildings in this part of town were at this time of night.

"I always hoped to die in a brothel from an over-stressed heart…but it seems I will be dying, with all my clothes on, as a shinobi. Damn Tsunade. Fifteen years to get over a fear of blood and she just can't do it…."

He took a moment to test the air around him, seeking out chakra signatures for anyone above a civilian. Fruitless. There were no ninja close by…he couldn't even feel Tsunade's chakra signature.

If Danzo had lied…he might still be alive in that toad to be reinterrogated. But Jiraiya should this warehouse check to be sure. The sly Danzo might have several tricks up his sleeves.

In a day filled with summonings, he performed one more: the Great Toad Spy. He was quite small – by choice – but he never failed a mission.

When the toad appeared he didn't greet the Toad Sage or demand to know why he'd been summoned, he just looked ready to take on a task.

Jiraiya pointed at the warehouse. "Tsunade may be in that building…in a hidden basement. Find out if she's there."

"A pleasure, Jiraiya-sama. I will locate the Slug Mistress."

The Great Toad Spy moved with such discretion that Jiraiya's eyes noticed his absence, but did not see where the small creature had gone.

The minutes ticked by. Danzo had not said what precautions were in place – just getting the location had taken almost an hour. Now, Jiraiya was frantic but trying not to show any physical signs of his fear.

"She is present, Jiraiya-sama."

The Toad Sannin hadn't even felt or noticed the spy's return. That was an incredible skill. The news made him happy…and grateful. Getting Tsuande out, that was a different story.

"Where?"

"The entrance to a set of stairs is in the northwest corner of the building. The tunnel goes down fairly far and deep – and I think it winds its way underneath the Hokage Monument. She is in a room I couldn't enter."

"Why couldn't you enter it?"

"The entrance was wrapped in seals of a type I'm not familiar with. There was no door, just a force of some type keeping me out. There were no other entrances I could detect."

"A trap then?"

"Most assuredly, Jiraiya-sama."

"Thank you for your excellent service. Please inform Gamabunta of what has happened here. If…if I succumb to this trap, then he must know why."

The Great Toad Spy looked less impassive than usual…signaling the great alarm he must have felt. The toad was normally a model of emotional restraint. "You intend to walk into a trap?"

"I have been walking into traps all my life. This one I am just less sure about returning from. Tsunade is important to me…and I have the means to give her back her freedom."

"I do not recommend this course of action, Jiraiya-sama. I can return to the Great Toad Mountain and find one of our Seal Masters to aid in this endeavor."

"Thank you, friend. Please tell Gamabunta…."

"Why? Why do you risk yourself this way?"

"I have been saving Tsunade-hime since a week after we were put on a team together. I yanked her back as a horse was going to put a hoof through her chest. Nothing's changed during the years since. I pay off her gambling debts when I can – some refuse to sell them to me, thinking it better to have a Sannin in their debt – and try to keep her safe from her more self-destructive tendencies. I guess it's one of my main roles in life."

The Great Toad Spy nodded and disappeared. There was no arguing with that type of love, that strength of devotion.

"God dammnit, Senju Tsunade. If I'm getting blown to the afterlife because of this, we're going to have angelic sex together until my ghostly appendage falls off from overuse." Jiraiya continued muttering nonsensical things to himself as he carefully broke into the warehouse.

Even now, he didn't know how the Great Toad Spy had gotten in. There were no broken windows or tracks in the dust. That ancient, tiny toad knew more about sneaking and peeping on targets than Jiraiya would ever be able to master. He was a role model to all spymasters and perverts.

The Toad Sannin couldn't sense chakra of any sort as he moved deeper into another of Root's hidden facilities. How Sarutobi hadn't noticed all this building – what had his sensei been doing while Hokage? Sleeping? Mourning?

An entire army loyal to someone other than Hidden Leaf and the Hokage had been formed up, officially dispelled, and unofficially multiplied like cockroaches.

If he surived…if…Jiraiya would be having words with his sensei.

The Toad Sannin arrived at the room where Tsunade was restrained. The sealing array around the door…was impressive. But hardly a nuisance to someone of Jiraiya's experience.

Three minutes later, he cautiously walked inside the room, looking and feeling for more booby traps.

Tsunade was still unconscious.

The room seemed clear…which made Jiraiya all the more suspicious. Danzo would have known of Jiraiya's skill…those seals wouldn't have been a challenge for him.

…But they would have for anyone but Jiraiya.

Those seals ensured that the Toad Sannin had to come into this room.

Brilliant! Always a brilliant deduction, but always a few moments too late. Jiraiya scooped up Tsunade from her chair and prepared to shunshin away.

But he wasn't fast enough.

A seal array written on the seat of Tsunade's chair flickered briefly once her weight was removed…and then the entire room was covered in black seals which now revealed themselves.

"God damnit! Someone painted this room yellow…and used a yellow ink to craft the fucking seals. Slippery enough to be one of Orochimaru's little games. I must be slipping…."

Jiraiya bent down to set Tsunade on the floor to begin removing the seals – a lot of them – when he heard a laugh from the corridor.

"You are slipping, Hokage-sama."

The voice was…familiar. But, Jiraiya couldn't place it until a form came closer to the blocked entrance.

It was Sarutobi…Asuma, the Sandaime Hokage's estranged son. He was dressed all in black…like an ANBU doing an overnight mission. Asuma had never been in the ANBU, to Jiriaya's knowledge.

"What the hell? Jounin Asuma, get me and the Lady Tsunade out of here."

A shaking head was his answer. "That's quite impossible. Any disruption of these seals causes the exploding tags buried in the Hokage Monument above us to detonate."

Jiraiya felt his guts tighten. He didn't even think to question the veracity of the statement. It made too much sense from a bastard like Danzo. "Then why are you here, Asuma?"

The laidback jonin was gone. The zealot, like Danzo, was all that remained. "To say goodbye to my predecessor. I will be Hokage after you're dead."

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Sasori expected to be ambushed any moment. He'd been running for twenty minutes when it finally came…and he was still surprised.

He felt seals triggering as he jumped over a tiny stream.

Powerful earthen walls erupted in every direction. A moment or two later, Sasori was trapped in a makeshift arena with high walls and no seating capacity.

"You promised me a master class, puppeteer of the Sand. I would have my lesson."

Sasori ran to one of the walls. It was still filled with chakra, somehow. He checked to see if he was under a genjutsu…but this structure was real.

How could his intelligence not have learned these things about the Nine Tails? The money he poured into his spies; the missions to collect the boy's students and extract needed intelligence; all this work for a horribly inaccurate portrayal.

Even if the boy had temporarily wrecked the Third Kazekage puppet, Sasori thought it a gimmick, a fluke.

But the boy had skills…in sealing as in puppetry.

Sasori had learned enough sealing to make his human puppets possible…but he had not made a general study of the field. That was obviously a mistake.

The voice, generalized before like a mimicry technique, now came from directly behind him.

Sasori twisted, his puppet's scorpion tail aiming for where he heard the voice. He'd expected to see nothing, but the stinger was impaling a smiling, blonde ninja…a ninja who wasn't dying.

This wasn't a clone…this was a puppet. Or some type of hybrid. This was very bad.

The puppet or clone or whatever it was continued talking, even as he was impaled. "I was a little child when I learned to control chakra strings, Master Puppeteer. A few years later, I took a trip to Hidden Sand hiding out inside a puppet I built…and that's when I first heard of you and your terrifying techniques. But, I have to say…I am not impressed so far."

The puppet dissolved…and a bit of stone or metal fell to the ground.

Sasori twisted when he felt three kunai fly at him. He dodged more adroitly than his bulk would indicate.

Three smiling, blonde clones…puppets were now in front of him. They hadn't been there before…and it wouldn't be easy to sneak inside this makeshift arena.

Unless there was a hidden passage.

Was that all this was? A trick? Something to throw Sasori off his game?

He pulled out the Third Kazekage once more. Within a moment, the metallic sands had destroyed these three.

Then the five who appeared behind Sasori.

Then the seven.

Sasori got so into his rhythm that he didn't see the attack. He didn't even know how much fire struck his battle puppet and the Third Kazekage. He hadn't seen the fireballs eminate from any source.

As he began to feel the heat inside his wood and metal puppet, he decided he had to flee. Many, many sealing scrolls would be destroyed; many of his human puppets lost.

But…

But…he had to survive.

He could still win.

"It took me a few moments to prepare those Hellfire Seals, inspired by one of the more interesting techniques known to the Uchiha. My increasing cascade of clones kept you occupied…so you didn't notice. A pity about your metallic sand using puppet…it was quite a technique. I myself have only managed to use elemental wind to move sand around…my efforts in experimenting with magnetism have all failed. That Sand ninja was a genius…." The professorial dissertation came from everywhere and nowhere. It was unnerving to say the least.

The monologue changed. The voice was single again, identifiable. It was behind Sasori, a good deal away.

"I suppose you know why I have been preparing for this day for three years, Scorpion? You took one of my students from me…."

Sasori needed to reverse this. He needed the Nine Tails to make a mistake. He needed an angry, foolish opponent. "One? I have taken two! As soon as I can find the other one, he will die as well. The Nine Tails is too important to be allowed companions and allies, not when I can milk them for intelligence."

The blonde ninja no longer smiled.

"I thank you for the notification, however cruel your intention for telling me. I had been trying to find him for some time. Now, let me show you what a true puppet master can do."

The speaker disappeared. And eight red blurs erupted from the ground and swung with kunai. Sasori avoided three of the strikes. The others hit non-lethal areas.

Sasori leapt as those clones…or blurs…disappeared. It was like they knew precisely where he would be…did the Nine Tail have a precognitive ability?

When he landed he didn't even have a second before more red blurs erupted and swung.

Sasori's wooden arm, his right one, hit the earth. Sasori jumped as soon as he could, but when he landed a deep nick in his leg fractured upon his landing. Sasori tumbled to the ground.

Another blur of red figures erupted from the ground. Sasori lost his remaining arm and leg. He was now a self-made puppet without means to move.

"You survived that better than Kisame did, Sasori. That was my masterwork, the Flowing Red Death, made from my puppet clones by means of seals. With these weapons I can never really be disarmed, unlike you. Your human puppets went up in smoke. It's for the best that your type of abomination is ended."

Sasori knew it was over. "Kill me, then. Kill me. End this."

"I have questions first, Akasuna no Sasori. Why antagonize me – kill my students, taunt me – did you so little value your life?"

It was a good question. "I did not think anyone this powerful."

"Arrogance, then. More great ninja fall to their own arrogance than to any other cause."

That put a bit of fire back into Sasori. "I am bested, but I am not the strongest of my organization. You will not be able to beat them."

"Why did you follow Akatsuki? This is my final question. I have not been able to understand why someone as powerful as yourself would abandon a village but then join up with a bunch of other criminals. You didn't need protection from the hunters. I'd suspect many of your human puppets are the bodies of oinin. Well…why?"

Sasori's puppet face couldn't move very well. The final bits of humanity were starting to fail. However, this was a question he wanted to answer.

"I will tell you…if you promise to aid me. It is a minor favor, only a slight bending of your rather pedestrian moral code."

"I have no need to find out this answer then." The blonde ninja – was this one the real one? – drew a sword from his back.

"Hold. Hold up. I have something to say. Each of the original ten contracted with Akatsuki, to a set of goals, in exchange for a single favor to be repaid later by the Akatsuki at large. Kisame wished for the Water daimyo to be slaughtered. I sold my services for the right to end the existence of the Hatake clan – the monsters who killed my parents."

Sasori hated to document his own weakness in his younger years…but it was the truth.

"You weren't strong enough to do this on your own?"

"When I joined…no. I could not have infiltrated the largest of the Hidden Villages and struck down one particular ANBU. I killed the Third Kazekage with poison during a scheduled meeting…it isn't a story I've told often, not very impressive. An S-rank does not mean we're gods. But, in the intervening years, I have become powerful enough …with the help of the Akatsuki…too bad the contract is enforced by our rings. Betrayal is death, not that any but our Leader know this…."

"Orochimaru betrayed you…and it didn't kill him."

"He stayed with us until he knew his immortality technique would work…and then he went his own way. The ring…it destroyed his original body."

"I did not know that. My spy didn't seem to, either."

Sasori laughed, bitterly. "So much of the world consumed with spying…and no one knows anything. Will you do this for me, a favor granted by the strong to the weak? Will you kill the Hatake clan of Konoha?"

The blonde ninja looked disgusted, but then shrugged. "You deserve nothing…but I am not a cruel person. Hatake Kakashi, the last of that clan, was killed less than a week ago…in the aftermath of a failed assassination attempt against the Hokage."

"Thank you. I wish I could have killed you, but I die happy with that knowledge."

The world dimmed as Sasori's will to survive diminished. With his failing sight, he saw a sword penetrate the sealed container holding his human heart.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

"You of all people threw in with Danzo?" Jiraiya asked the sole remaining son of the Third Hokage.

"My father's peacenik actions have stripped us of the power we should have, Jiraiya. Had we followed the Path of War…the Great Five Shinobi Powers would be only Two or One now. We could have destroyed Kumo all those years ago when they mucked around with the Hyuuga; Hidden Mist had been weakened by their continuous civil strife and would have been an easy target; the Fourth Hokage brought Iwa to its knees and then stopped. He and my father negotiated a peace treaty when we should have annexed them. And…Suna…our traitorous partner. After their betrayal, we could have ended them. But we did not. We did nothing."

"You will destroy the Hidden Leaf!"

"You are not the village. You are a weak fool. Your student, the Namikaze, would have been a powerful foe, but he was too self-sacrificing to do the truly hard things. No, I and my allies will restore Hidden Leaf to the greatness we had under the Nidaime. We were born of war and will return to it."

None of this made any sense. "How? How did you become this warped…."

"I have always felt this way, ever since I studied the shinobi wars in the academy. When I fought with my dad about these things, I learned to be less public in my views…but I found compatriots. Even my time in the Fire Guard was mostly spent training the Root – with a Shadow Clone refreshed every day or two dealing with the ceremonial bodyguard duties – now we're ready. You're a breathing dead man; my father I can deal with after your funeral…."

"Danzo and your compatriots in the village are all neutralized…."

Asuma shrugged. He looked like he didn't actually care. "Danzo was too shrill, too obvious. And I can always find new compatriots, the Root methods do work wonders…."

"You are a monster, Jounin Asuma."

"I am a true ninja, you worthless bastard." The seemingly lazy ninja, relaxed to a fault normally, began to shrink back in the shadows. He had an image to maintain, to grow and twist into the leadership of the village.

As soon as Asuma was at a safe distance, Jiraiya knew the mountain would fallm detonated remotely somehow…leaving Asuma a logical, 'safe' choice to become a Hokage. He wasn't the strongest jounin in the village, not by a longshot, but the old lie about the Hokage being the strongest ninja wasn't the actual truth. The Hokage was a strong ninja…but in Hidden Leaf there were other, unofficial qualifications.

A Hokage was always connected somehow to a previous Hokage. The First was brother to the Second. Both were sensei to the Third. The Third's student became the Fifth; and Jiraiya's student had been the Fourth. It was like an odd type of dynastic lineage…and it wouldn't be disrupted by Jiraiya's death.

The son of a Hokage would qualify as part of this careful extended dynasty.

If Jiraiya did nothing, he would die. If he did something, he would die. But…he could disrupt the seals and bring down the mountain early. Jiraiya had always mourned and envied his student, Namikaze Minato, for his self-sacrifice.

For saving the village from a monster.

"I apologize, Tsunade-hime," Jiraiya whispered. "I cannot protect you this time."

"A great pervert's last words," Asuma's mocking voice carried back. "Now just die!"

Jiraiya stood up, formed a brilliant Rasengan in his hand, and pushed his hand into one of the seals. The exploding seals above did their jobs.

Asuma barely heard the explosions before he realized what had happened. He tried to shunshin away…but the rocks crushed him long before he finished the first hand seal.

In the Hokage Tower, Sarutobi was on his feet the moment he felt the explosion. The normally illuminated faces of the First and Second disappeared. Half of Sarutobi's own image slid off the mountain, crushing the businesses and houses underneath. Although he wouldn't discover it until nearly sunset the next day, Sarutobi Hiruzen had become, for the third time in his life, the presiding Hokage in Hidden Leaf.

All of his students were dead. All of his children were dead. He wouldn't have any time to mourn.

A quarter of his village was in ruins.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Naruto, the real Naruto, stepped out from the cavern he'd used as a temporary base. As he gathered his belongings, he felt a wisp of a particularly memorable – and vile – chakra.

Madara.

Uchiha Madara was nearby. He'd been the one to set up Sasori as bait.

Naruto sealed away his belongings, brought out another sealing scroll, and then set off. He was ready for Madara.


	26. Chapter 26

Chapter 26

A/N: I've always wondered why a bunch of crazy S-ranked ninja would join a criminal organization. Last chapter I presented my hypothesis; it's not canon to the best of my knowledge.

As to Kakashi's fate, it is possible he's dead…or that Naruto lied to a dying, hated ninja for his own purposes. Remember that only one ninja died trying to kill Jiraiya…and many others were slaughtered by Pain's six bodies. No more will be said about him in this story.

As for the unexpectedly horrible corruption of Konoha in this story, especially Asuma's role, this has been foreshadowed in this story. (A Sandaime too weak to battle the council to allow the young Naruto to at least attend a civilian school would definitely be too weak to control his own son.)

Danzo's a true bastard in canon…and in this story I just changed around some of his compatriots. Canon Konoha will survive because of people like canon Naruto. My Konoha has fallen to the corruption eating at its roots. Not that many things have to change in order for that to happen, by the way.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

"You can come out now, Madara. I know you're lurking about…."

The orange-masked muppet did appear then. "Your earth wall technique was impressive…and annoying. I could not see what you did to Sasori. It is good I deal with you today before you become too powerful. Your body will survive even after your brain is dead. For a few days, at least, until I can get that demon out of you…."

Naruto gave no visible reaction to this fearsome sounding threat. No, he continued on with his semi-absent meandering thoughts.

"I wasn't sure if it would be you – or the other one, Pain. Both of you have interesting techniques for traveling long distances in a brief timespan. But I'm glad it was you. How are your lungs, by the way?"

Madara said nothing, but went on the offensive. His lungs, apparently, had been quite bothersome.

Naruto ducked the blast of black flame and danced out of the way, as if he were one of his graceful puppets.

"A nice greeting…but I have to ask for parlay. My master…."

"What foolish prattle is this?" Madara grunted.

"My master would speak with you. Now."

Without a handseal, Naruto disappeared…and then Uchiha Itachi came out of the cavern that Naruto had just vacated.

"Madara, you look…unchanged."

"Wha… Itachi! I was sure you were dead. I saw Kisame's head…but I thought yours was kept for experimentation…."

Itachi looked even more impassive than usual. "You think the Nine Tail could do the things he's reputed to have done. I have had the bijuu under my control – no thanks to your lack of instruction – for nearly six years. I found a bedraggled orphan dying of hunger in a slum of Grass Country's capital. You remember that mission? I was long delayed from returning, right. That was when I found the Nine Tail…and made him mine…."

"You…you never told me. Traitor!" Madara was shouting now, angry beyond measure.

"I killed Kisame in order to leave Akatsuki without seeming a traitor. The ring did nothing to me, of course, as I unraveled and defeated its secret protections."

Madara was so far beyond enraged that he couldn't form a word for a few moments. "I could have ended this farce of the Akatsuki long ago. I just needed the Nine Tail to make my final plans succeed…. Konoha could have burned six years ago…."

Itachi cracked a sliver of a smile. "I know."

"Itachi, my student, today I end your life and reclaim the Nine Tails."

"You may try."

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Naruto prepared for phase two of the battle.

Madara was certainly unhinged. Fitting a voice synthesizer, like his Taro puppets had used, under Itachi's robes had taken a few minutes…and was worth more than an army of ninja right. It had been worth the extra hours to return to Itachi's prison and collect him, exploding seals and all, just in case it was Madara stalking him. He had even fitted in glass eyeballs into Itachi's eye sockets.

It all looked real. Save that Itachi couldn't use his non-existent Sharingan…and couldn't attack. But…Madara didn't even known which direction was up.

So few ninja used deception to the full. A pity.

Itachi's cloaked body wasn't a puppet, just an unwilling human with his spinal cord suppressed. Naruto moved Itachi's body, not Itachi. This is a technique that Sasori would have sniffed out in a second, but it was likely Madara didn't even know it was possible.

It was a fine deception.

Itachi weaved and bobbed, ducking Madara's increasingly angered and frenzied attacks. He knew better than to engage in a Tsukuyomi war with his ex-protégé, as Itachi was perhaps just a sliver more talented with that technique.

Phase two began, as small vials hidden in Itachi's cloak had their corks pulled by chakra strings. They began to leak. The liquid gases began to react to the air. The environment filled with small concentrations of an odorless gas.

It was a poison, but not the kind that killed. The kind that blinded.

Itachi led Madara on a chase, walking Madara right through plume after plume of the nasty creation.

From many hours of discussing Madara, Naruto understood that the man's depravations had likely made him immortal in some fashion because of his special form of Sharingan eyes.

Eyes which Naruto was now trying to actively destroy.

This poison wasn't the slow acting optic nerve poison that Kabuto had designed all those years ago…this was a derivative, a much more caustic chemical.

Naruto slowed down Itachi movements, allowing Itachi's body to be 'wounded' by a massive fireball. Itachi screamed and fell to the ground.

As predicted Madara had to stretch out this act, make it symbolic. He knelt down next to Itachi's body…and then he began to tighten his hands around Itachi's neck.

Not a ninja killing a ninja. A stab with a kunai through the throat, a slash of a katana, some quick and efficient.

This was a mentor taking the time and effort to personally, slowly kill the only thing he loved, at any level. It was a personal thing, a crime of passion and hatred.

To do such a thing, Madara could not use his time/space jutsu. His ghostly hands would do nothing to Itachi if he had his ultimate defense active.

In his sublime anger, he had forgotten the 'Nine Tails' was nearby. He had lowered his defenses and bared his neck for anyone to attack in his moments of distraction.

Perfect.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Madara looked into Itachi's eyes as he strangled his former student. "Thus always to traitors."

Itachi's struggles became more vigorous, but ineffective, while his eyes…his eyes seemed grateful.

'What was going on?' He tried to remove a hand to interrogate Itachi…then it happened.

Madara's body went slack. He tried to flee. He tried to leap a few kilometers away, as he normally could with ease.

But…nothing responded. Even his chakra seemed to ignore what his mind was screaming out. It was like his body was dead, while only his mind was still functioning.

He tried to use an eye technique, tried to use his spirit guardian Susanoo to protect him from whatever was happening…but, in the attempt, his eye exploded outward.

Madara's screams could be heard for a kilometer. For just a second. Somehow the brain's impulses had overwhelmed a chakra string…but just for a second.

Pained, anguished screams. Genuine screams of terror and frustration and helplessness.

Like the screams of a village in the face of a nearly immortal Kyuubi no Kitsune. A fitting, well deserved scream.

When Naruto sent out a puppet clone – as Madara wasn't stupid enough to damage his other eye, unless it was an attempt at vengeance for a betrayal – he was still of two minds about how to do this.

If Itachi had been right, then the type of Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan Madara had would keep him alive even if he experienced a normally fatal injury, so was it possible to permanently hobble him? Would that keep the regeneration from happening?

Or should Naruto attempt to destroy Madara's body?

No. A disabled Madara was almost as good as a dead Madara. After all, Madara had minutes earlier threatened to leave Naruto brain dead so that he could extract the Nine Tailed Demon at his leisure.

It was a fitting plan, even Madara unwittingly agreed. Wounded, trapped, unable to move – a safer option, for now, than killing Madara outright.

Naruto didn't want to have to keep tracking him down and using gimmicks to get the ridiculously strong ninja to make himself vulnerable.

The puppet clone bent down and selected a rock. A few blasts of elemental air chakra had the stone quite sharp. The weapon incapacitating Madara would not be a chakra weapon: that was more likely to be detected by his body as an attack.

No, this rock knife would have the honors.

The puppet clone used his free hand to pull the orange mask off the smallish ninja. He didn't even care to see what Madara looked like. He just wanted a clear shot at the man's neck.

The chakra strings squeezing off Madara's spinal cord were about to be physically aided…the effect made mostly permanent.

The puppet clone brought the stone knife down between Madara's first and second cervical vertebrae, slightly off of center. He loosed the hold his chakra strings had on Madara's spinal column…and the knife was performing much of the same task. Madara's heart continued to beat, his lungs to inflate. His body was alive; his mind was alive; but his body's ability to follow Madara's commands…that seemed gone for the time being.

Enough of the spinal column was destroyed to keep him trapped in his mind – but not too much to allow him to die.

The puppet clone gently pushed Madara forward, onto his stomach, so as not to interfere with the stone knife…which was still embedded in the spinal bone and severing a good portion of the ninja's nerve transmitters.

With a knife blocking things, regeneration of the nerves couldn't take place. Electricity didn't pass well through rock…and nerves weren't strong enough to burrow through it.

The puppet clone stood watch over the still immobilized Itachi and the incapacitated Madara. An hour passed, then Naruto himself appeared, reasonably confident that Madara wasn't playing possum.

With the kind of pain he was in from a burst eyeball, his body would be shaking or he'd be screaming at the least…if he could.

Naruto had used the time to fetch some some superglue from the nearest village. He used the nasty stuff to seal the slight opening between the stone and skin. Then he ripped the leather thongs from Madara's strange orange mask and used them to help stabilize the stone knife in Madara's spine.

Naruto had feared this ninja for years. It was only a vicious deception that permitted Naruto to win this time. He wasn't about to let some stupid accident free him to start regenerating somehow.

That stone knife wasn't coming out.

A cordon of six Kage Bunshins lifted Madara off the ground and onto their shoulders. Six should ensure smooth movement, so as not to jostle the knife too much.

Naruto then returned Itachi to a sealing scroll. He'd deal with the once-talented ninja later…now that he had finally served a useful purpose.

The procession began. Naruto would be returning to near the Namikaze estate in River Country with his prize. He'd find an…appropriate place to keep Madara…safe.

He wanted to crow and celebrate…at this stroke of luck, at this victory. But he knew better.

There was still Pain.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Naruto was in Rain Country trying to figure out where Pain's main base was located. Ever since he'd secured Madara in one of his River Country bases, he'd been searching for Pain.

In the ever gloomy rain, Naruto had made no progress. He'd surveyed the villages and towns quickly, already guessing that was too obvious. Then he'd begun trying to find useful caverns, even those masked with genjutsu, in the surrounding hills.

There were many such caverns, some with interesting spoils, which Naruto gladly stuffed into storage scrolls…but there was no Pain.

He stalked up the hill and used the technique he'd developed to deal with Orochimaru's hidden bases. The sound waves traveling through the ground – and up the hill ahead of him – would collapse any holes they found.

Holes, such as well-hidden caves.

Thus, a few hours later, a rather irate Pain, his principal body covered in wet dust and rock shards, and a woman with an odd sort of flower in her hair – Konan, if Itachi was to be believed – finally met Uzumaki Naruto, the host of the Nine Tails.

Pain did not immediately attack.

Naruto prepared his Flowing Red Death technique.

Konan looked over the young ninja with an undisguised amount of curiosity. "I expected you to be dead, little ninja," she said.

"Why?"

"Our true leader went mad and has been stalking you for weeks, almost a month. You must be some kind of genius to have avoided him for so long."

Naruto – the real one – laughed. He performed a sealless Kage Bunshin and prepared to replace himself with a Shadow Clone.

Pain spoke before Naruto left. "He did find you, didn't he?"

Naruto paused in his preparations. "He did."

"He claimed to be truly immortal. Not the false immortality offered by a religion…or by body part salvaging or body snatching. Did he lie?"

"I have no idea," Naruto said. He was about to depart and let the battle happen…when he felt something very odd.

He felt chakra sent off in bursts…and returning just the same way.

Then he saw Pain perform a summoning…and five more bodies, ninja bodies, appeared.

Now, to Naruto's sensitive chakra detection abilities – honed through his mastery of chakra strings and cables – the air was positively filled with tiny bursts of chakra…an almost continual amount, filling the air.

Now that he was aware of it, it seemed very odd.

He had never been this close to Pain before, definitely not at the Waterfall Debacle. Madara had set to chasing Naruto before Pain got within a kilometer of the jinchuuriki.

What was this? This air filled with little chakra packets…. It felt like a young Suna puppeteer almost stuttering with his fingers as he or she tried to become proficient – and failing – in handling a puppet.

A puppet.

Pain and his bodies. The signals back and forth, from home base, controlling these bodies.

Yes, that was a discovery. Naruto had the Flowing Red Death ready; he was ready to replace himself with a Shadow Clone…but instead he stayed. This was too interesting now to leave.

Pain was…interesting.

Konan restarted the stalled conversation. "I personally looked for a long time for a method to deal with the mad, little man. How did you do it?"

Such a simple question…but…

Naruto felt a lot calmer all of a sudden.

These godlike people had forgotten simple things: a powerful ninja body was still a body, still required air and signals from the brain. They spent too much time thinking big and overwhelming.

No one was better at 'big and overwhelming' than Madara was reputed to be. Hence this kunoichi's anxiety.

No…Naruto's early experiments and focus on the small, on micropuppets, on the details that matter…all that still served him well.

Naruto realized that Pain and Konan were powerful, but they were different types of ninja.

They didn't think the same way he did. And he could win today because of it.

Pain the Puppeteer was dead without chakra, without his signal flooding the area. There was a way to cut his strings.

Unfortunately to use a wide-area chakra nullifying seal would mean Naruto couldn't use a puppet or even a Kage Bunshin nearby these Pain bodies and Konan…. It would make defense easier, but offense nearly impossible.

The opportunity was still worth it. Naruto used a dozen chakra strings to begin etching the seals into the bark of a nearby three.

When he activated it, he would be without his best weapons, his Flowing Red Death would be impossible to perform…but his opponents would be at least as handicapped. Konan could be poisoned with as many poisons as Naruto carried around on him…and his time in Grass Country left him an avid poisoner…and Pain's bodies, without instruction from the home base, would flop to the ground, as useless as dead fish.

Naruto relaxed a bit…and answered Konan's question, filling the pregnant silence. Even the local insects had gone quiet in the face of so much chakra used in the summoning.

"To be honest, I stabbed him with a knife…into his neck. I did not kill, but rather disabled. I have no idea if he's as immortal as you claim, as he's now defeated and held prisoner unable to move or speak…."

Pain – or one of his bodies, the one who had summoned the others – frowned. "He is impervious to physical attack. Be honest."

"I am. I offered Madara something of great value. When he wrapped his hands around it – forgetting about me – I struck."

Konan nodded. "Yes, he can be wholly impervious or solid like a normal ninja…not a mixture to the two at the same time. To touch something with his hands…he would have to leave himself vulnerable. A simple, elegant solution. What was this object of value?"

Naruto didn't understand why these seven ninjas weren't attacking. Why were they stalling? Reinforcements…there were a few Akatsuki still alive. But Kakuzu wasn't on Pain's level…and Zetsu was a disgusting creation.

"A deception. A deception he bought with his whole being."

The seeming leader of the Pain bodies frowned. "Madara was an ancient being with a powerful doujutsu. He would have seen through any deception."

Naruto's preparations of the chakra nullifier were ready. He had mentally counted up his poisons. He needed to time this just right, before whatever plot they were working on happened….

"No, Pain. I believe him." That stopped Naruto for a moment. Why was Konan saying that? Naruto had told but half or a quarter of the truth.

"You and Madara both overvalued his experience and his Sharingan. He was…powerful in his prime, but he was increasingly mentally unstable. If this young ninja did something that resonated in tune with Madara's madness…it could very well have worked."

"Perhaps," the lead Pain body said. "Boy, I will offer this. Neutrality between us."

"What?"

"I offer neutrality. I will not hunt you. Nor will the Akatsuki, any longer. You have dealt with Madara so we need no longer bother with his ridiculous plan to capture the bijuu. The only problem I see is that Sasori remains highly interested in you for his own reasons…."

"Sasori is no longer a problem. I dealt with him. Now you tell me why you would declare neutrality…."

Konan looked shocked. To her it was one thing to trick a deranged Madara…but to 'deal' with Sasori, a suspicious bastard on his best days, that was something else. Konan apparently undervalued Madara as a ninja.

Pain looked unsurprised at Naruto's statment. Instead he answered in a calm, level tone, "You have cost us too much of our capacity to keep this war going. I don't know how many Akatsuki you've truly dealt with…but I know we're well below half of our needed senior membership. Our drive to enforce peace around the world…had gotten distracted by this quest for the bijuu. Because of Madara. I have no problem ending the side quest in order to fulfill our main goal…."

"You would kill for peace?" Naruto asked.

"The only path to peace is through searing pain," the lead Pain body asserted.

"If you believe that, then watch. In the coming years, I will prove a different method."

Konan looked like she wanted to argue about such a bold statement…but Pain's main body cocked his head and said, "It is possible you might do just that."

"Let me make a promise, then," Naruto said, improvising. "If I ever see you or Konan again, I will assume you've betrayed our neutrality. I know your secrets Pain. I figured them out after you summoned your other bodies." With that statement, Naruto powered on the chakra neutralizing seal.

(Naruto would only realize later that the storage scrolls holding his food and tent had been destroyed by the neutralizing seal. After that, they were little better than fancy paper someone had already scrawled on.)

Pain's bodies dropped to the ground like puppets with cut strings…which was exactly what they were. Unfortunately, Naruto false legs was also attached to him with chakra strings...and his leg fell out underneath him. His physical training gave him good enough balance that he didn't fall down, but it was awkward for a brief moment.

Naruto turned to a doubly shocked looking Konan. "Didn't know a cripple could be a ninja, huh? Well, some of us can. Even missing a leg, I can take you, all of you. Now, tell your leader when you manage to resuscitate him, 'Keep Kakuzu and Zetsu on short leashes.' I know how to destroy both of them…," he said, bluffing, "and I have more than one good idea of how to deal with you, too."

"I will try," Konan said, her eyes swiveling between Naruto's false leg and the six motionless bodies of Pain. "Zetsu is…difficult, though, when he becomes fixated."

"If Pain gets any ideas regarding my show of power today…remind him. I had once thought to use an optic nerve poison on him. It worked on Uchiha Sasuke, from what I understand, and another variant did some interesting things to Uchiha Madara. But, on him…it wouldn't have worked, would it? Destroying the eyes of these…bodies would have been, at best, a temporary victory. No…I understand how to deal with him. And I can and will do it again, if I see him again."

Naruto turned his, spotted a likely tree branch, hopped three times, and ripped himself a temporary crutch.

He turned and began hobbling his way down the hill. He wasn't sure how far the nullifcation stretched, but he'd rig up a new temporary leg as soon as he could. (He'd left the old one behind for it was too difficult to balance on one leg and bend down to pick it up. He also didn't plan to show Konan any more of his shame, of his weakness.)

"How?" Konan called out. She needed to know how to fix this, how to repair her best friend's bodies. She obviously hadn't yet figured out she needed to drag the bodies away from a sealing array she couldn't see…or to wait for the seal to exhaust its power.

"Never screw with a sealing master on ground he's had time to prepare." He didn't know if the wind would carry his words. He didn't care. She wouldn't understand.

As it was, Naruto wasn't sure he understood why he did all that.

As he left, he asked himself a question. Why?

Why leave them alone? Why accept this 'neutrality?' He knew they were likely to betray him in the future, but he was honestly interested to see if Pain's methods would work in the slightest.

Peace through war…a failure every time it had been tried. The burning of a forest could provide vibrant new growth a few years after the devastation…but people were different from trees and plants. People remembered; they held grudges.

Of all people, Naruto understood this. A grudge against the fox had led to a horrible childhood for him.

His background had left Naruto thinking about peace for a long time…and he had developed a plan. Something to do now that the legend of Taro had faded; now that Naruto no longer needed to prove his strength as a ninja.

Naruto, a cripple with a missing leg, was as strong as they got. Ninjutsu for ninjutsu, he would lose; in taijutsu, he would lose to a master…but in an unrestricted fight, Naruto could figure out a way to triumph.

He wanted to see if his idea would work…if it would work better than Pain's.

It was all curiosity. Powerful ninja had very little to entertain them once they reached the summit. Something interesting, something curious shouldn't be sacrificed until it bored the mind. That was why Naruto hadn't immediately killed Sasori three weeks ago – he'd wanted to exhaust all the knowledge, all the promise Sasori had.

All the amusement.

As the rain stopped (and would remain stopped for nearly a month), Naruto realized – to his mounting horror – that he was just as crazy as these other S-ranked bastards. He found his chakra working again, henged a Kage Bunshin into the shape of his prosthetic, and resumed a more graceful walk off the hill.

His mind returned to the idea of insanity.

Toying with people; killing them in ways that amused him. He'd left Pain alive…so that there was the promise of something interesting, something challenging in the future.

The Grass jounin council had been right to expel him, as Taro of the River, all those years ago. Naruto shivered, not from the chill air, and set out back to River Country.

He'd try not to think of this again.


	27. Epilogue

Epilogue

A/N: Ever since I wrote chapter one, I had a sense of what I wanted for an epilogue. (In one way, I wrote all the proceeding chapters just so I could play around with the epilogue!) It's grown quite a bit from the simple conversation I first imagined.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

"Faster, my precious grandson. The daylight is a-wasting."

"Stop trying to play the dotty old ninja master. I know you better than that."

The old man bashed the top of his grandson's head with his long-stemmed pipe. After all, the young grandson had his grandfather perched on his back…and he was running at full pace through the western side of Fire Country.

It was surprisingly comfortable…for the grandfather…and excellent training for a young ninja.

"Why are we going to River Country again? I was perfectly happy in Wave Country, you know."

"I have heard the most interesting rumors," the grandfather said.

"I think I liked you better when you were uptight all the time, grandfather."

"Enough talking, run faster, little ninja."

The dialogue ended. The only noises as the sun set were heavy inhalation of air and the rhythmic pounding of sandaled feet in the now thick grasses of the border between River and Fire Country.

The sun set long before the young ninja, carrying the weight of two people, plus belongings, arrived at the massive, almost undulating walls of River Country's capital city…The Living City.

The ninja guardians took the grandfather and grandson's name, confirmed they were permitted inside the city after sunrise the next day (no visitors remained inside the city overnight), and then called ahead for a hotel room for the night. The old man, after all, was just a bit famous all over the Elemental Nations.

The old man and his grandson found their hotel, located outside the city walls on the eastern edge. They slept easily and made it back to the gates by eight.

In the daylight, when the guards actually permitted people to enter The Living City, rather than just clearing them to access the hotels, the questions were a bit more in depth.

"Both of you are listed as ninja in our rolls, is that correct?"

The old man nodded.

"What is your business with The Living City?" The questioner looked to be young, sixteen at best, several years younger than the old man's grandson.

"I wish for my grandson to continue his ninja training at the River Center…."

"What country do you both currently reside in?"

"Wave Country," the grandson said.

The guard just nodded. He didn't need to mention that only countries that had accepted River Country protection could send ninjas for training at the River Center. These ninja obviously knew.

"Here are your passes," the guard said, handing over small metal disks. "The Living City is a bit different to navigate around. This map should help. The River Center is in the far north; many people also like to visit the Daimyo's Garden…."

The grandfather smiled and interrupted. "Yes, I understand the Daimyo is often found in his garden, rather than in a formal court setting."

"Honored Sir, there is no court. The Daimyo's private residence is directly under the Garden, as most residences are constructed underground."

The grandson seemed surprised at that. It seemed…odd to him. But he had his own agenda. "I had heard about your merchant district…."

"Yes, it is here," the guard said, pointing to a section of the map labeled The Grand Concourse. "This is the only part of the city where commercial buildings are permitted above ground. There are many other commercial areas, though, in underground concourses."

"Why build underground?" the grandson asked.

"I think you will understand after you enter the city." With that, the guard bid both ninja best luck. The grandfather, with his exceptional hearing undiminished, heard a comment as he left. "Call the Daimyo's office. Pass along the names of these guests."

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

It hadn't been easy to get to the River Center.

First, the view was distracting. Everything inside The Living City…was green. Instead of buildings everywhere parted only by roads, The Living Village seemed like a massive growing vegetable field dotted with buildings, roads, rivers, and people.

"Did you know it was like this, grandfather?"

"No, Konohamaru. I had no idea."

Second, the city wasn't laid out on a grid. Indeed, the roads seemed to run in a very irregular manner. Some followed the rivers that ran through the city. Others were ovals or circles around special park areas or groves of fruit trees.

Third, the Grand Concourse, which was smack dab in the middle of the path Konohamaru had plotted, was very tempting. The smells from the food stands were mouth watering; the stores stocked unusual goods that weren't found at all in Wave Country.

One bookseller had a complete stock of the works of Jiraiya…in their memorial editions.

By ten o'clock, grandson and grandfather arrived at the River Center. It was the largest above-ground structure in The Living City.

A kunoichi looked up and smiled when the grandson walked into a small, but airy reception area. Most of the students here moved with purpose, even the very youngest. For such a serious place, it didn't seem dour. There were too many blooming flowers growing on and up the walls.

"Ah, yes, Sarutobi Konohamaru, the daimyo's office informed us of your intent to register with us. Please come with me. Kind sir," the woman said, looking at the former leader of the Hidden Leaf Village, "I was told that the School Master wished to meet and speak with you."

"Who is the School Master?" Sarutobi Hiruzen asked.

"He runs the River Center and is the commanding general of the River Army."

"Two vital tasks for one man?"

"Yes," a loud voice said, as a tall, powerful man walked into the room. The grandfather recognized that this was likely the School Master. "They are the same task. A general must build an exceptional army before he can be trusted to command one. That is my nindo."

Sarutobi smiled. "I would be glad to speak with you…."

"Call me Namikaze San."

"The Third Namikaze?"

"Let's just say it's a name in honor of my past. Walk with me." The tall, powerful man walked quickly out of the reception area on the lowest floor of the River Center and began to walk up the gradual incline leading to the third, and highest, floor.

"Are you perchance related to the Namikaze who settled in Hidden Leaf so many years ago?"

"It is possible," the School Master said, "but unlikely. I carry the name for my brother in arms, the Daimyo."

"Namikaze Naruto?"

"Yes. For an old ninja, the one known as the Unluckiest Ninja Ever, you remain sharp witted."

"I would very much like to speak with him."

"And he would like to speak with you. He will be hearing formal petitions in the Daimyo's Garden, where he sits as a judge of last recourse, for the next hour. Would you care to talk with me until then? I have many questions you might be able to answer."

Sarutobi smiled. "Of course. What do you wish to know?"

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

"…and what will happen to my grandson?"

The far reaching conversation between the School Master – once known as Number Three – and Sarutobi Hiruzen was winding down. The pair had just walked into visual range of the Daimyo's Garden.

"I have not seen the results of his testing, but I expect you've trained him well in the ninja arts. I'd suspect we will give him one year of classroom time, mainly to pick up the non-military subjects we teach, along with continuing his physical education and toning. Then a five year tour as a genin; that's broken up into six months tours with jounin-led teams or one-on-one mentorships. Everyone experiences police duty in one of the protectorates of River Country; everyone also serves one or two stints on border patrol. The rest of the time is spent examining possible tracks: more time with the police, or service with the diplomatic corps as a rookie…."

"So when would he begin taking on missions?"

The School Master looked confused for a moment. "Ah, I see what you're asking. When would he serve a client?"

"Yes, precisely."

The School Master shook his head. "Never."

Sarutobi's brow creased.

"Think of our ninja more like your ANBU…our ninja all serve the daimyo. We have abolished mercenary missions…we do not aid criminals who might contract for an assassination…and any resident may go to a police station and request ninja assistance without paying an extra fee, beyond the taxes paid to support the police. We take care of yakuza and other criminals as soon as learn of them. All of this makes countries like Earth and Lightning more than a bit angry with us."

That made little sense to the former Hokage. "You fund all this just through taxes? It's enough to keep your army fed and paid?"

"Correct. In Earth Country, for example, people pay taxes to fund an army and a police force and an intelligence and counter-espionage center and a team of diplomats and to pay for hospitals and doctors…here, in River and in our protectorates, some of the tax money funds ninja…who do all of these things."

"But how can a small team of ninja defend against a large samurai army?"

"Through appropriate training, of course. When genin graduate into chuunin, they return to River Center for an additional year. We call it War College. Those who go into combat operations as their specialty learn how to deal with large armies of samurai and ninja; how to plan and execute ambushes; how to lay siege and succeed or, even better, how to avoid the siege in the first place using stealth. Other chuunin specialize in diplomacy and politics (all our diplomats are active ninja); or policing and justice (all judges throughout the protectorate are active ninja); medicine or education or one of another dozen fields. Your grandson, when he becomes a chuunin, will also be expected to devote at least a year to teaching at the River Center even if he does not choose to specialize in education."

Sarutobi just nodded. They had stopped at the edge of the Daimyo's Garden. It was the largest open space Sarutobi had ever seen within a village's walls – of any village or city he'd ever visited.

But he noticed something…odd.

"Those trees…they move."

The School Master just laughed. "Yes, they do. If you ask nicely, the Daimyo might tell you about his Dancing Trees."

Sarutobi's eyes were locked on the…yes, dancing trees. A hundred or more of them weaved and bobbed and…danced in the outer portions of the Daimyo's Garden. Now Sarutobi understood why the gate guard had explained how to get here. It was a marvel.

Technology maybe? That was more Konohamaru's area of interest. Or perhaps it was Naruto's skill as a puppeteer? He must remember to ask.

The large gathering around the center pavilion began to break up. This session of court seemed to be over. Sarutobi began to walk onto the garden, but the School Master held him back.

"Just wait. He knows you're here, he'll come and find us. No one sets foot in the Daimyo's Garden without his blessing. Even the petitioners were personally escorted up to the pavilion by the Daimyo…."

"What happens to those who try?"

"Let's just say that those trees can do more than dance."

"Not even you can approach your brother in arms?"

"I can, but not with a guest. It's a security precaution…someone might attempt to coerce me into granting them access to the Daimyo for an assassination attempt. Such things have happened in other countries…."

"You're obviously a powerful ninja…even if I've never heard of you before…"

The School Master laughed. "So far no River-trained ninja has ever appeared by name in one of those ridiculous bingo books. A few have gotten photographed and tagged with nicknames…but we're trained in discretion."

"…so how could you be coerced?"

"'Rule Number Twenty-Seven. Always possess an accurate understanding of your strengths and weaknesses. Overconfidence kills more often than bad luck.' I know that there is at least one person stronger than I am."

Sarutobi puzzled it over…before he remembered a genin team from Grass, the team Naruto was involved with. From the murky reaches of his memory, he put it all together. "Your sensei? Your Daimyo."

"Precisely. Fewer than five living people know that he is a most accomplished ninja. He remains in top form with his puppets and can do things by himself that I might not be able to accomplish with a small army…"

Sarutobi was confused. "How? How did he remain so unknown?"

"It was his will…he has never been giving to bragging or boasting. His skills are his own – and he had always operated in the darkness. Indeed, this was only possible given his unique form of self-taught education. His name, thanks to your 'kindness,' appears in no Academy register, not under his original name or the name he deserves and is now called."

Sarutobi understood the advantage and felt a bit pale at his 'role' in making this possible.

"Our civilian, non-military-trained Daimyo appears an easy target to those who might oppose us. 'What can a civilian do against a trained ninja assassin?' Enemy assassins make it into the Garden from time to time, from those still-mercenary Hidden Villages, but none ever return."

Sarutobi stuffed down all his regrets for what had happened…and what he had done. The Hidden Leaf was gone as an idea and as a military power. His mistakes had helped make that possible.

"How will my grandson become a jounin here?" Sarutobi asked. A new topic was safer than silence.

"Perseverence, as anywhere else," the School Master said. "Jounin are promoted based on the ninja's skill level and the need for additional senior ninja in the chosen field. Combat operations – the backbone of our military defensive network – promotes a lot; the medical corps promotes quite a few; the research corps promotes relatively few. Someone going into research or education will remain a chuunin for a long time, but they have relatively safer lives. It all balances in a twisted way."

"Well, Konohamaru will almost certainly be interested in combat."

"Perhaps. My oldest boy swears he will be a great steam user, like me, but I suspect the silver tongued devil will wind up in the diplomatic corps. Your grandson might change his mind after he spends time in a number of different postings."

"Yes. Now, all of this sounds good…for a peacetime setting. What happens during war?"

"All the specialties are important. But we have plans, in wartime, to do some adjusting. Active duty diplomats, for example, will be recalled and given a month or two to get back into top physical condition. Their billets will be filled by the wounded and the retired – or will go unfilled for a time. Ninjas during difficult periods can stretch and make do with Shadow Clones for assistants. The same retraining period and reassignment applies to teachers and several other specialties. Researchers…for the most part…get left alone, even during wartime. All our active duty ninja must keep in good condition, but good condition is not the same as wartime fighting condition. Hopefully our first war will not come for some time."

"I will hope for that, as well." It was a naïve hope, of course. Ninja were designed for war, for intrigue, for conflict. "Now, how do you ensure a balance of skills? Konohamaru's taijutsu is quite good…and I admit to having taught him more ninjutsu than I probably should have. I broke his heart, after all, he'd been a genin for only seven months when I disbanded the Hidden Leaf ninja force. I indulged him a bit too much, I suppose. He also has access to the monkey summoning contract, but has never taken up bojutsu. That and many of his other skills I have not been able to hone…."

The School Master had nodded through the question. "As my sensei taught me, we attempt to teach those who follow in our footsteps with the same methods. Each ninja is exposed to a wide variety of styles and techniques. Once something sticks, the people involved in teaching that ninja help him or her to refine the style. I was taught by a puppeteer, who mastered a wide range of skills in order to practice his art, and he helped me to develop jutsu he would likely never use. Our jounin become experienced in technique development as a necessity. We have a comprehensive technique library – of things we've developed and those we've stolen from others – but most ninja will end up discarding 'off the shelf' techniques within a few years. They will have to make their own."

"Very sensible," Sarutobi said. "Ninja are far more formidable when the enemy can't predict what they might do…."

"I am glad you approve," said an unfamiliar voice. Sarutobi turned his head and looked toward the voice…and saw a not-very tall man, with wild blonde hair, dressed in heavy green and bronze ceremonial robes.

It was Naruto…the Daimyo.

"Considering you famously said, when asked to serve as Hokage for a fourth time, 'I will fight no more forever,' I did not expect to hear this type of admiration for military training….Old Man."

"Naruto?"

"Yes, that's right. I made some money and bought some land. Then some fool decided I owned enough land to be a minor lord…and when the last River Lord died, I was elected to hold the title…."

"I'd say you were more than just the River Lord now, Naruto."

Sarutobi finally understood what Naruto had been doing after Wave Country become a protectorate of River. That was the first time he'd heard the name Naruto in a very long time…River County kept its secrets, even the name of its Lord, safe and sound.

"Thank you, Number Three," Naruto said to the School Master. "Would you care to join my conversation with the Old Man?"

"No, I've already had an hour with him. I think I'll go speak with our newest volunteer, the young Sarutobi. I wouldn't have had this sort of time if you'd have shown up tomorrow. I'll be off…to Wave Country actually…to inspect some new volunteers for River Center."

"Thank you, Namikaze San," Sarutobi said. "I appreciate the valuable time you've lent me. When I was Hokage it was difficult to indulge myself for an hour like you've done for me…and I suspect your ninja force dwarves what we had in our prime."

"I can neither confirm nor deny that, Sarutobi. The pleasure was mine."

The School Master walked back to the River Center while the Daimyo…Namikaze Naruto…led the Old Man into the Daimyo's Garden.

"This is beautiful," Sarutobi said. "Beyond description."

"Yes, that is the purpose of The Living City. Strength can seem hard and unbreaking…but the more devious sort can inspire reverential awe and happiness. I went for greenery rather than grand palaces as the Earth Lord or Fire Lord do. As a result, I do not mind sitting for court, most days, because it's always so beautiful to look at."

Sarutobi had long wanted this conversation to happen…but now he did not quite know what to say. He knew he had questions he wanted to ask…and apologies to make…but the words did not belong to him at the present.

"Would you care for tea? Or some food?"

"Whatever you're having."

Naruto called no one – in fact he seemed to have no servants around at all – but when he showed Sarutobi a seat under the Grand Gazebo, easily large enough to shelter a thousand people, there was hot tea and a selection of dumplings sitting on a small, elegant table between the two chairs.

"I hear there's a story about your trees," Sarutobi said.

"They're puppets, of course." The Daimyo smiled while Sarutobi showed just a bit of surprise. He had considered that as a possibility. "Usually I have a Kage Bunshin deal with them, but during especially boring meetings, I'll control them myself to keep from screaming. Like my next meeting in an hour – the Political Intrigue Hour – when the diplomats from our non-protectorates get their weekly meeting to protest this and that."

Sarutobi understood the pain of diplomacy. He was surprised that the Naruto he remembered could be restrained in the face of such annoyance. He did not voice this thought.

"So…it really was you, all those years ago in that ill-fated Chuunin Selection Exam? You saved my life."

Naruto took a sip of tea, then nodded. "I did."

"Why?"

The tea cup went back on the table before Naruto explained, "I still don't know. I hated you then, more than I remembered the good parts. I remembered the pain of being refused, being ignored. You seemed so powerful then, so interested in my life, but then you dropped me when I was in the hospital. You stopped coming around, stopped eating ramen with me…and the last straw was my schooling, once I realized something odd was happening. But you were both the Bastard…and the Old Man. I guess I chose to save the Old Man, the cheerful grandfather who liked to eat ramen with me when I was a young lad."

Straight to the heart of the matter, Sarutobi realized. Naruto was an aggressive diplomat, rather than a cautious one…that much was obvious…even if he did possess a certain potency of expression. "I regretted what I did then…just as I do to this day. Once you were hurt, once it was clear that the Kyuubi wouldn't be able to give you a new leg, my thoughts turned to your safety. I wouldn't be able to ensure your ninja education; I wouldn't be able to ensure you were strong enough to defend yourself from all sorts of potential hazards…."

"Telling someone like me he can't do a thing just ensures he will…without your oversight."

Sarutobi nodded. "I realize that now. I could have nicer about it or found a better set of compromises…but I didn't. I was old and tired and I failed you again and again. You're right, the worst part was the school. The compromise with the civilians, who I could have overruled without much effort, kept you safe at the cost of your education. After all, it was hard to justify keeping an ANBU on you when you were considered so helpless. I took the ANBU away, kept you out of school, and the civilians on the council agreed not to ever inflame passions again concerning you. Such a treasonous admission – that they had done just that in the past – I should have punished…I know that now…another failure. Best I know they did keep their word: you were no longer something they noticed since you stopped most of your pranks and were never seen with their children in the classroom. An uneducated demonic child without a leg no longer seemed so ominous to them."

Naruto took a dumpling. Sarutobi noted that Naruto's manners had certainly improved in the intervening years since their last meeting. "Civilians, hnn. I always thought it foolish to have civilians on the council. In a village of mercenary ninja, what value does a civilian add to the discussion? I certainly don't listen to anyone who hasn't served as a ninja."

Sarutobi reached out for his tea cup, his very warm tea cup, then set it back. It needed to cool. "Why?"

"Civilians, with no personal experience of war, are often more bloodthirsty than hardened military veterans. That is why only those who've done their time in the military may serve in high positions of civil administration and justice. To my mind, no sane ninja lusts after war…but he or she will turn to it in the final extreme. That is the right way."

"And what of the warmongers?"

"As I said…no sane ninja wishes for war as a first option. My advsiers who counsel war above all else…find that they are no longer my advisers. For years I waged a four-man war, then a two-man war, and then a one-man war. I have committed atrocities in the name of peace when I hunted the Akatsuki…that I would not wish any other man to have to experience. I will not lust after war…but when it comes, and I know it will, I will make sure we win."

"It's harder than it sounds," Sarutobi said, by way of defending himself. "People have opinions…."

"You did not manage your counselors this way. I understand you named your former teammates as your counselors…and then let them run amok. And you placed a former rival for the office of Hokage there too, a bitter old man even at the age of nineteen. A mistake. All of my top advisers, especially Number Three, are ninja who I could see myself appointing Daimyo in my stead when I step down. They have the kind of restraint and judgment that I trust. You would never have appointed your rival, who assembled an alternate power structure to your increasing anger and impotent demands – I've read a few histories of the Hidden Leaf for sale on the Grand Concourse – or your atrophied teammates.

"They may have had sound minds…well suited to measuring out justice in a small town or leading a permanent delegation to a small, but important, trading partner. I do not keep them in The Living City; nor do I keep them in the same posting for more than a year or two. I have no problems squashing an internal rebellion, after all I can form up an army of special clones – known in these parts as the Black Hand, when I send them on missions or when they operate here in The Living City to deal with a traitor or an infiltrator – and not even force my ninja to deal with such…people or have those brutal actions on their consciences…but I wish to keep them from appearing in the first place. But…that's just how I handle things like that here."

Sarutobi shrugged. He was too old to lead any longer. He hoped Naruto would be stronger than him when it came time to make difficult choices.

All of Sarutobi's hardest decisions failed. He wouldn't bother to defend them.

In many ways, he deserved the title of Unluckiest Ninja Ever. Or maybe Most Foolish Ninja ever. Sarutobi perked up, and abandoned his self-criticism, when he heard the next question.

"How long have you known I was here, Old Man?" The question had genuine curiosity behind it. This question made Naruto seem less a Daimyo…and more an old acquaintance.

"Weeks, yes seven weeks. You kept yourself well hidden. Until Wave Country became a protectorate of River, I hadn't even thought of Daimyos and such in quite some time. My last letter to the Fire Lord was not…well received."

Naruto nodded. "You refused to appoint yet another successor, if the rumors are correct. Indeed, you disbanded the ninja force and left the village in the hands of civilians."

"After the death of the Rokudaime Hokage…I just couldn't do it again."

Naruto popped a small dumpling into his mouth. This was obviously his lunch…and the only food he might get until night. Naruto lived in even more of a bubble than Sarutobi had.

"Your choice for the Sixth was strange," Naruto said. "Hyuuga Neji. A taijutsu specialist…without a summoning contract…or a famed original technique. A powerful jounin at the time, by all reports, but… Was he the strongest the village had left of the younger generation?"

Sarutobi shook his head. "He certainly wasn't at Kage level when I appointed him…but neither was I was when the Nidaime died. I grew into it; Jiraiya had thirty more years of experience than many Kages do when he took over. Normally this is a young man's game; few ninja, especially the powerful ones, live to the age of thirty. Only the Shodai and Yondaime were truly at an undisputable 'Kage level' at the age of twenty when they took the reins of power."

"Not the Nidaime?"

"My sensei was a good man…and his water techniques were powerful…but he was more a pacifist than I was. His appointment after the sudden death of the Shodai was political…although the Nidaime turned out to be a good leader. A great leader in wartime once he was pushed into it. I was stronger than Sensei by the time I was seventeen – stronger than our Hokage at the time, but not stronger than the other Kages."

"So, the Hyuuga?"

Sarutobi took the tea cup and took a sip. It was a fine, rich tea; better than what he could find in even the finest shops in Wave. "It was a political choice on my part. My son was dead – thankfully as I found out a few months later when I examined his papers and deciphered them – as were Tsunade and some of our strongest jounin. Jiraiya had placed all the ANBU and jounin who were in the village under a special seal to prevent them from waking until he released them. He did not know who were loyal and who traitors. It took months after his death to unravel that blasted thing and get them all restored. A few nearly died from dehydration before we figured out what happened and located all of them. We had to feed them through tubes stuffed down their throats. A nasty business. I'd still like to wring my student's neck…."

The Daimyo gave only a wry smile. His eyes involuntary twisted to look at an unusual monument in the Garden. When Sarutobi stared at it, it looked…like the Uchiha clan fan had been engraved in it. An odd memorial for a land where the Uchiha had never lived. There was a story there…Sarutobi would have to ask, but perhaps not today.

"So…the pool was not terribly deep," Sarutobi continued, dropping his thoughts on that odd monument. "But I wanted someone with passion. Oddly enough, the taciturn Hyuuga was the most passionate, the most likely to bring at least temporary peace and solve our current problems. A year went by, a hard but promising year of rebuilding and mourning, then he began his crusade to destroy the Caged Bird Seal, a Hyuuga Clan abomination. It was rather ridiculous. The Hokage was branded with that mark…so that any one of forty-odd people could kill him with just a handseal. The battle raged for eight months before a Hyuuga elder did just that rather than cave to the Hokage's demands."

Sarutobi couldn't hold the sad timbre in his voice. Talking about those dark days always made him angry and depressed at the same time.

"In my grief and anger, Hokage for the fourth time, I slaughtered every Main branch Hyuuga. I reminded them why I was not just a doddering old man. They were taijutsu masters, but I knew more ninjutsu than even my craziest student managed to learn. None of them got within forty meters of me; they were stupid to have concentrated so much on short-range combat.

"That was when I disbanded the village and wrote the Daimyo: 'I will fight no more forever.' In his rage at losing face, he sent assassins after me and I was forced to violate my pledge."

Naruto had been attentive to the entire story. He finally nodded, with an unreadable expression on his face. "I had wondered why the old Daimyo and a good portion of his family had a fatal accident around that time."

"A convenient lie told by the new Fire Lord who disliked his great uncle, but did not care to have such a dishonor tarnishing him before he was invested. We declared neutrality and I moved with my grandson to Wave Country."

Naruto nodded. A political nod; he had heard enough. "A sad tale; the end of an idea. I did my part to rescue that village twice: once as a sacrifice when I was a few hours old; once as a protector during an invasion that did not concern me. I would not have gone out of my way to help them a third time nor certainly as many times as you have."

Sarutobi drained his tea cup. It was a delicious liquid…but it couldn't take away his temporary melancholy. "You've become hard."

"Jaded? Yes. My story is my own, however. I will say that I know how and why to reward betrayal harshly. For instance, I had a neutrality with Lord Pain, then leader of Akatsuki…."

"How did you – Jiraiya told me they were hunting the bijuu…."

"Lord Pain changed the plans once he rose to the top of the heap. However, once he realized that my plan for bringing peace to the Elemental Nations was working, while his was stuck in a rut, he attempted to betray me. When he proposed neutrality, I told him I knew his vulnerabilities and I gave him a demonstration…he did not believe I could duplicate my original show of force when he sent a sneak attack my way. Five hours after I killed his assassins, I leveled his stronghold and killed him. He was…surprised when he died."

How, Sarutobi wondered. What was this technique? To kill such a powerful ninja, the one who was reputed to have slain Salamander Hanzo, the world's strongest ninja for more than two decades. From Naruto's smile, Sarutobi realized this was not a secret that he would be sharing.

Sarutobi decided to ask an impertinent question. "Your plan for peace…you mean your protectorates?"

"Yes. This is the first phase."

Sarutobi needed to understand phase one before asking about what came next. "You are, in effect, Daimyo of nine countries now…but you claim the title of River Lord only. Shouldn't you be an emperor?"

An absent shake of the head refuted that. "No. I have conquered nothing. I have not replaced the Daimyos who contracted with my ninja army for assistance. All of this was done through diplomacy. I control only River Country…."

Sarutobi knew a bullshit line when he heard it. "But you've made it impossible for the protected countries to declare war. Their Daimyos have had to disband all but their bodyguard details."

"Yes, that is a useful thing."

That confirmed it for Sarutobi. "That is your main purpose, River Lord. Peace through inability to make war?"

Naruto smiled again. And said nothing.

"When will the wars with the other nations begin? You've 'annexed' all the countries, save Fire Country, without their own Hidden Villages. What about the rest?"

Naruto ate another dumpling. "The Earth Lord really hates me. The Wind Daimyo is playing coy, while likely plotting with Hidden Sand. Water Country has refused to meet with my diplomats past the initial meeting. Surprisingly, Lightning Country has been the most polite…but firm in their refusal. Grass Country is perhaps the closest one with a Hidden Village to accepting our protection."

"That would be…quite something…if it happened. How would the dismissed ninja react, I wonder?"

Naruto shrugged, but obviously had an idea or two he wasn't ready to share.

"The Fire Lord, though. Hmm. I expect trouble in some shape from him. When I reminded that young man he had no Hidden Village – his plan to create the Village Hidden in the Smoke, near all those volcanoes, is doomed to fail – he basically threw me out of his palace. I will say this: while I will not start a war, when attacked, any aggressors will see the might of the River Center and then my terms will not be so generous."

Sarutobi considered this. "An emperor in all but name. You've set yourself up…these Hidden Villages will have to go to war with you. You threaten their livelihood, their very existence. It is either genius or tremendous folly, your forcing them into declaring war on you. I never predicted this for you…."

Naruto's smile turned to stone. "You left me to rot. I understand your reasoning and accept your apology, but I do not forgive you. I would rather be a happy chuunin in the Hidden Leaf, eating ramen and jumping about like an over-caffeinated toad, than this…what I am. To get this powerful, more powerful than you, Old Man, required sacrifice."

"I understand." Sarutobi almost stuttered out his words. These last few words from Naruto had been accompanied by increasing levels of Killing Intent. It became a bit hard to breathe, in fact.

"No, you don't. But that is all we need say of that." The leaking Killing Intent died down. Had it been directed at Sarutobi, rather than generalized and dispersed, it might have been enough to stop his heart; that was raw power. "Do you wish to become a resident of The Living City…to watch over your grandson?"

Sarutobi goggled for a moment at the abrupt change in the conversation. One moment Naruto was about to stop his heart; the next, he was offering Sarutobi a home in his capital city. He stalled, trying to figure this out. "I had heard it was difficult to qualify…."

"For one such as you, I would be glad to waive the rules, Old Man. Do you wish it?"

Sarutobi was quiet for a long time. His facile mind went over and over what he knew, what he suspected. "Why do you offer?"

Naruto smiled. "Had you been the slightest bit dishonest with me – or justified your decisions even now – we would have finished this conversation and I would have sent you on your way. You might have been able to see your grandson once or twice a year during breaks in his training. However…after what we've discussed this morning…I would like to remake the acquaintance of the Old Man, as it seems the Bastard has gone on hiatus. It's also a favor to you…for kindnesses in the past. I suspect you would like to keep a closer eye eye on…Konohamaru. What a mouthful! Perhaps he should petition for a name change." There was the mischievous Naruto Sarutobi remembered.

It didn't take long to consider the proposal. This had been some kind of a test…and Sarutobi had passed this round. "Yes, I would like that. I would like to become a resident."

Naruto stood and looked at Sarutobi. "Let me walk you out of the Garden then. I will have someone take you to the housing office. Nearly all residences are underground you know, leaving all this land to grow beautiful plants."

The rest of the conversation, once tense and personal, changed into the Daimyo's well rehearsed sales pitch concerning his capital city. He was proud of what he'd created…and it showed in his every word.

"If anyone were ever foolish enough to lay siege on us, we have enough food and spring water to last…forever. Beauty and strength, a fine expression of both. As it is currently, most of the food we grow remains here while some is sent out in exchange for luxury goods from our trading partners. Fish and shellfish from the ocean; rice of the highest quality; ducks and pheasants and fat cows; teas and delicacies from all over."

Sarutobi arrived back at the road that circled around the Daimyo's Garden. "It was good to see you, Naruto."

"It was a pleasure for me," the Daimyo said. "I will expect to see you tomorrow, at noon. I have a less full afternoon then…and we might speak for a longer time. As it is, I must return for the Political Intrigue Hour."

"Best of luck!"

Naruto, already well back in the garden, close to a dancing tree, turned around and smiled. It was different from how the young Naruto had smiled. It spoke of power, and rage, and pain. It spoke of insanity remedied and of a dream yet to be fulfilled.

It was, at its heart, filled with hope.

THE END


End file.
